Your First Plot in R

Interactive R tutorial on plotting: draw histograms, scatter plots and boxplots live in your browser with base R graphics β€” edit the code and see the figure change.

R makes graphs with a single line. Every plot below draws in your browser β€” Run each box, then tweak it.

Watch: your first plots in one minute

Watch each graph β€” a histogram, a scatter plot, a trend line and a boxplot β€” drawn live in RStudio, then recreate them in the consoles below.

Download the R script  Β·  β–Ά Practice in the playground β€” or edit and run each snippet below.

A histogram

Histograms show the shape of a single variable:

Change col to another colour name (like "tomato") and run it again.

A scatter plot

Scatter plots show the relationship between two variables:

Heavier cars (right) get fewer miles per gallon (down) β€” a clear negative relationship.

Add a trend line

lm() fits a straight line; abline() draws it. You just made your first regression plot.

A boxplot by group

Boxplots compare groups at a glance β€” more cylinders, lower mpg. (How to read a boxplot.)

Your turn

Next: Basic statistics β†’ β€” from pictures to numbers.