Glossary of terms that appear across the tutorials:
| Jargon | Definition | Links to further info |
|---|---|---|
| Argument | The input(s) to a function to make it do what you want. | Argument |
| Console | Where the code runs. You can interact directly with the console (type in it). Or when you run code in the script, it prints/runs here. Printouts also are show here. | Console |
| Environment | Generally talking about the global environment. Contains all the variables, data and functions that are accessible to the user. | Environment |
| File path | Location/address of your folders, sub-folders and files inside your drives. Can be see in Window’s File Explorer address bar. Used to find and read in objects/data and save out objects/data. | File path |
| Indent | How many tabs/spaces away from the right hand side of the script the code is written. R doesn’t generally mind about indents but there is best practice. | Indent |
| Parentheses, Brackets, Bracers | Round brackets (), Curly brackets {}, Square brackets [] | Parentheses, Brackets, Bracers |
| Pipe | The operator %>% from magrittr which allows functions to be called on dataframes in a sequential order. | Pipe |
| Print/Printout | Outputs text, data etc to the console. | Print/Printout |
| Return | Colloquially similar to printout but when regarding a function. | Return |
| Script | A text file containing code (a sequence of commands) that can be edited and saved. Code runs in the console. | Script |
| Syntax | Akin to a languages grammar. A fancy way of saying how something in the code is written to get it to do what you want. The rules of writing code. Differs across different programming languages. | Syntax |
| Terminal | Provides access to the system shell (command line interface with things like file explorer, Git). | Terminal |
| Variable assignment, Assign a variable | Save something (data, value, function etc) to a variable, primarily using <- or =, so that it is availble in the environment to be used in the code. | Variable assignment, Assign a variable |
| Working directory | Folder where you are working. It’s the place (the environment) where you have to store your files of your project in order to load them or where your R objects will be saved. | Working directory |