In this first chapter, you'll learn what defensive programming is,  and how to use existing packages for increased efficiency. You will then learn to manage the packages loaded in your environment and the potential conflicts that may arise.

Defensive R Programming

Real Programmers...

Don't reinvent the wheel/package

Updating Packages

Out of Date Packages

Task Views

Packages and Namespaces

Number of Loaded Packages

Counting Exported Functions

The Conflicted Package

Avoiding Conflict

Programming is simpler when you get feedback on your code execution. In R, we use messages, warnings and errors to signal to keep the user informed. This chapter will discuss when and where you should use these communication tools.

Early warning systems

To TRUE or not to T

Let's be evil

If it weren't for those pesky kids

Message in a bottle

Did you get the message?

Suppressing startup messages

Stop being noisy!!!

Using message in practice

You have been warned

Messages vs Warnings

Suppressing warnings

Stop (right now)

Warnings vs Stop

Using the stop() function

We can avoid making mistakes using a consistent programming approach. In this chapter, we will introduce you to R best practices.

Preparing your defences

What does DRY mean?

Refactoring: functions

Just one comment

Header comments

A little bit dotty

Use a full stop in variable names

Avoiding the .

Coding Style

Importance of consistent style

Static Code Analysis for R

Code tidying

More linting

Preparing your defenses

Creating a script is nice, but working on a project with several scripts and assets requires structure. This final chapter will teach you good organization practices, so you can go from script to package with an optimal workflow.

A battle plan

The importance of consistency

Give me some space

Human readable filenames

What date format should we use?

Organizing a project

Avoiding absolute directories

The input/ directory

Absolute vs relative

Graphics and output

Generating graphics

Graphics/

One final work flow

Creating a Battle Plan

Writing R scripts is easy. Writing good R code is hard. In this course, we'll discuss defensive programming - a set of standard techniques that will help reduce bugs and aid working in teams. We examine techniques for avoiding common errors and also how to handle the inevitable error that arises in our code. The course will conclude looking at when to make the transition from script to project to package.

Intermediate R

Learn how to make create robust code using defensive programming techniques in R to avoid errors when transitioning from script to project to package.

Learn defensive programming in R to make your code more robust.

R Developer

Task Views

Defensive R Programming

Hands-on interactive exercise