RStudio is an IDE (integrated development environment) for the R programming language:

R is the name of the language that is used to write commands and scripts and also the programme that runs these. There’s no icon on your computer to open up R and it doesn’t have a window with menu options; you can’t see R.
Editors are programmes that allow you to create, open and edit files. Within a file, you can write commands in a programming language of your choice and then save that file as a script.
An IDE is a programme-that-runs-a-programme. IDEs are editors that also have the ability to run the scripts that are open in them. When a file is run, the commands that are written in it are executed by the programme that it has been run with. IDEs are applications, they can be opened from icons and will have windows and menu options; you can see IDEs.
RStudio is an IDE especially made for the R programming language. It’s not the only one, but it’s the main one and arguably the best.

So RStudio is a programme that can be used to create and edit R scripts, and also to run them. It’s an IDE and so has an editor as one of its features.

Download and Install

macOS

First, install R from CRAN (the Comprehensive R Archive Network)
Then, install RStudio by going to the RStudio website > Download > download RStudio Desktop
Drag the RStudio icon into the Applications folder so it can be accessed easily

Check that it’s worked by opening the terminal and running:

R --version

This should show a start-up message including the version number so you can double check that you’ve installed the latest stable release. Open R in the terminal by running the following:

This will open an interactive command line where you can enter and run R code manually. Close it by running q() and then n to not save the workspace image.

Ubuntu

Install R from the terminal with:
```
sudo apt install r-base-core
```
- If you have Ubuntu 20.04 you will first need to add the ubuntu focal-cran40 repo to your APT package manager. The name of this repo reflects the fact that this is CRAN’s (the Comprehensive R Archive Network’s) R version 4.0 for Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa).
```
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E298A3A825C0D65DFD57CBB651716619E084DAB9
sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu focal-cran40/'
sudo apt update
sudo apt install r-base
```
Check that it’s worked by running:
```
R --version
```
This should show a start-up message including the version number so you can double check that you’ve installed the latest stable release.
Open R in the terminal by running:
```
R
```
This will open an interactive command line where you can enter and run R code manually. Close it by running q() and then entering n to not save the workspace image.
You can download and install RStudio by going to its website > Download RStudio > under “RStudio Desktop” click “Download RStudio” > scroll down to “Ubuntu 22” and download its associated deb file (at the time of writing this is rstudio-2023.09.1-494-amd64.deb). If you keep scrolling down the page you will see that you also have the option of downloading a zip/tarball (a .tar.gx file). Only do this if you have a specific reason for wanting this type of file instead of a deb file.
Install the deb file from the terminal like so (you will be prompted to enter your computer password):
```
cd Downloads
sudo dpkg -i rstudio-2023.09.1-494-amd64.deb
```
Troubleshooting: if you get the following error (either in the terminal or when trying to open RStudio):
```
/usr/lib/rstudio/bin/rsession: error while loading shared libraries: libpq.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No
such file or directory
```
It means you need to install PostgreSQL; follow the instructions here although running the following is a good start:
```
sudo apt-get install postgresql-12
```

Updating

To update R, see here
To update RStudio, download the latest version
- On macOS, install it as per normal (ie replace the version you currently have in the Applications folder; any configurations you have will be carried over from the old version to the new version)
- On Ubuntu, point your terminal at your Downloads folder and install the deb file:
```
cd Downloads
sudo apt install ./rstudio-1.4.1106-amd64.deb
```

Configure RStudio

Add a ruler as a guideline to help keep your scripts the standard width: Tools > Global Options… > Code > Display > check “Show margin” > use a Margin column of 80 characters. This causes a vertical grey line to appear in your scripts at a distance of 80 characters from the left-hand side. This is the standard limit for how wide your scripts should be.
In RStudio v1.4+, add another pane so you can view scripts side-by-side: Tools > Global Options… > Pane Layout > Add Column

Keyboard Shortcuts

All the keyboard shortcuts for RStudio can be found by going to Tools > Keyboard Shortcuts Help (Shift+Alt+K). Here is a selection of the most useful ones:

Action	macOS	Windows & Linux	Same?
New R Script	Shift+Cmd+N	Ctrl+Shift+N	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Save	Cmd+S	Ctrl+S	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Save all	Alt+Cmd+S	Ctrl+Alt+S	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Find	Cmd+F	Ctrl+F	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Next tab	Ctrl+Tab	Ctrl+Tab	Yes
Previous tab	Ctrl+Shift+Tab	Ctrl+Shift+Tab	Yes
Close tab	Cmd+W	Ctrl+W	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Comment/uncomment	Shift+Cmd+C	Ctrl+Shift+C	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Re-indent lines	Cmd+I	Ctrl+I	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Indent	Ctrl+]	Ctrl+]	Yes
Outdent	Ctrl+[	Ctrl+[	Yes
Run current line or selection	Cmd+Enter	Ctrl+Enter	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Run line(s) without moving cursor	Alt+Enter	Alt+Enter	Yes
Run all lines	Alt+Cmd+R	Ctrl+Alt+R	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Run from beginning to line	Alt+Cmd+B	Ctrl+Alt+B	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Run from line to end	Alt+Cmd+E	Ctrl+Alt+E	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Source the current file	Shift+Cmd+S	Ctrl+Shift+S	Cmd/Ctrl swap
Knit document	Shift+Cmd+K	Ctrl+Shift+W	Cmd/Ctrl swap

⇦ Back

Introduction to R:R and RStudio

Download and Install

Updating

Configure RStudio

Keyboard Shortcuts

Introduction to R:
R and RStudio