Colab is an interactive notebook provided by Google (primarily) for writing and running Python through a browser.

Then, how to use R in Google Colab?

There are two ways to run R in Colab

  • The first way is to use the rpy2 package in the Python runtime. This method allows you to execute R and Python syntax together.

  • The second way is to actually start the notebook in the R runtime.

To use R and Python together in Colab

  • Open google browser.

  • Create a new notebook.

  • Run rmagic by executing this command %load_ext rpy2.ipython.

  • After that, every time you want to use R, add %%R in the beginning of each cell.

    • Start rmagic by executing this in a cell:
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    %load_ext rpy2.ipython
    • Use %%R to execute cell magic
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    %%R
x <- seq(0, 2*pi, length.out=50)
x
    • copy R variable to Python:
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    x = %R x

Start to use R in Colab

  • Go to this URL, or this short URL.

  • Confirm that you are in the R runtime by going to the “Runtime” settings, and select “Change runtime type”.

  • Check and print out the R version

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R.version.string
  • Check packages available
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print(installed.packages())

As an example, to install Package esquisse

  • Package esquisse

    • Explore and Visualize Your Data Interactively with the ggplot2 package.

    • A ‘shiny’ gadget.

    • To create ‘ggplot2’ charts interactively with drag-and-drop to map your variables.

    • You can quickly visualize your data accordingly to their type, export to ‘PNG’ or ‘PowerPoint’, and retrieve the code to reproduce the chart.

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      install.packages("esquisse")
library(esquisse)

Show me the code

fig1