B.4 About CRAN Task Views

CRAN 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, then you can install every package in that view using the ctv package, which automates package installation.

Install the ctv Package and Task Views

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")

Use and Manage Packages

To use a package, start 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 in which others are also adding 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