B.4 About CRAN Task Views

CRAN also maintains a set of Task Views that identify packages associated with a particular task or methodology. Task Views are helpful in guiding users through the huge set of available R packages. They are actively maintained by volunteers who include detailed annotations for routines and packages. If you find one of the task views is a perfect match, you can install every package in that view using the ctv package - an R package for automating package installation.

To use the ctv package to install a task view, first, install and load the ctv package.

R> install.packages("ctv")

R> library(ctv)

Then query the names of the available task views and install the view you choose.

R> available.views()

R> install.views("TimeSeries")

Using and Managing Packages

To use a package, start up R and load packages one at a time with the library command.

Load the arules package in your R session.

R> library(arules)

Verify the version of arules installed.

To use a package, start up R and load packages one at a time with the library command.

Load the arules package in your R session.

R> library(arules)

Verify the version of arules installed.

R> packageVersion("arules")

[1] '1.1.9'

Verify the version of arules installed on the database server using embedded R execution.

R> ore.doEval(function() packageVersion("arules"))

View the help file for the apropos function in the arules

package

R> ?apropos

Over time, your package repository will contain more and more packages, especially if you are using the system-wide repository where others are adding additional packages. It's good to know the entire set of R packages accessible in your environment. To list all available packages in your local R session, use the installed.packages command:

R> myLocalPackages <- row.names(installed.packages())

R> myLocalPackages