6.1 What is R Markdown?

  • What is R?

“R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics.”

— R-Project1

  • What is Markdown?

“Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain-text-formatting syntax, created in 2004 by John Gruber with Aaron Swartz.”

—Wikipedia2

  • What is R Markdown?

    • A algebraic answer:

      R Markdown \(=\) R \(+\) Markdown

    • A naive answer:

      Traditionally, we process data in one computer program and write reports in another. R Markdown brings these two aspects together so that we analyze data and generate reports in the same file, the R Markdown file.

    • An official answer:

      “R Markdown provides an authoring framework for data science. You can use a single R Markdown file to both (1) save and execute code; (2) generate high quality reports that can be shared with an audience.”

      —R Studio3

    • A technical answer:

      “In a nutshell, R Markdown stands on the shoulders of knitr and Pandoc. The former executes the computer code embedded in Markdown, and converts R Markdown to Markdown. The latter renders Markdown to the output format you want (such as PDF, HTML, Word, and so on).”

      —R Markdown: The Definite Guide4

  1. R-Project.org↩︎

  2. Markdown, by Wikipedia↩︎

  3. R Markdown Introduction, by R Studio↩︎

  4. R Markdown: The Definite Guide, by Yihui Xie, J. J. Allaire, Garrett Grolemund↩︎