Chapter 3 How to use the crib sheet

The crib sheets contain R code for running analyses. There is no accompanying text to explain the output nor advice on why to use the method. You must consult course material in order to decide whether it is sensible to apply the method.

In order to use the cribsheets you must first become completely familiar with the process of loading data into R’s memory by using either read.csv, for comma separated variable files or read_excel which can import data directly from an excel spreadsheet file. You need to know how to put together your own annotated markdown files, with embedded code chunks and annotated comments.

For each analysis an example data set is provided that is loaded from the /home/aqm/data folder on the server. The file is converted into a data table in the cribsheet. This data table can be exported and then used as the template for your own analysis.

To use the cribsheet, first look carefully at the format of the example data. Download this file and modify it in Excel, changing the values and headers to match your own data. Then build a markdown file using your own data as the input. Change any names of variables to match those used in your own data set. Providing you paste in chunks from the crib sheet in the right order you can then build your own bespoke analysis for your data that will reproduce the anaysis shown in the crobsheet. Order of the operations is very important, as some code chnuks are precursors to others. If you understand the logic of the analysis this will not be a problem.