R Packages

Turn your R code into packages that others can easily download and use. This practical book shows you how to bundle reusable R functions, sample data, and documentation together by applying author Hadley Wickham’s package development philosophy. In the process, you’ll work with devtools, roxygen, and testthat, a set of R packages that automate common development tasks. Devtools encapsulates best practices that Hadley has learned from years of working with this programming language.

Ideal for developers, data scientists, and programmers with various backgrounds, this book starts you with the basics and shows you how to improve your package writing over time. You’ll learn to focus on what you want your package to do, rather than think about package structure.

• Learn about the most useful components of an R package, including vignettes and unit tests
• Automate anything you can, taking advantage of the years of development experience embodied in devtools
• Get tips on good style, such as organizing functions into files
• Streamline your development process with devtools
• Learn the best way to submit your package to the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN)
• Learn from a well-respected member of the R community who created 30 R packages, including ggplot2, dplyr, and tidyr

Table of Contents

Part I. Getting Started
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Package Structure

Part II. Package Components
Chapter 3. R Code
Chapter 4. Package Metadata
Chapter 5. Object Documentation
Chapter 6. Vignettes: Long-Form Documentation
Chapter 7. Testing
Chapter 8. Namespace
Chapter 9. External Data
Chapter 10. Compiled Code
Chapter 11. Installed Files
Chapter 12. Other Components

Part III. Best Practices
Chapter 13. Git and GitHub
Chapter 14. Automated Checking
Chapter 15. Releasing a Package