Statistics, Department of
Statistical Computing Using R and Python
Document Type
Book
Date of this Version
9-2025
Citation
Statistical Computing Using R and Python, September 2025
Open educational resource
ISBN: 978-1-60962-358-6
doi: 10.32873/unl.dc.024
https://srvanderplas.github.io/stat-computing-r-python/
Abstract
This book is designed to explain and demonstrate statistical programming concepts and techniques. I started this project in Summer 2020 as a less-tedious way to learn programming compared to hours and hours of video lectures. I’ve always found that watching someone code and talk about code is not usually the best way to learn how to code. It’s far better to learn how to code by … coding, but it’s hard to start from nothing, too.
Because this book was begun as an alternative to recorded lectures with slides, I have included all of the comics, snark, and gifs that I would normally have put in lecture slides. I’ve also supplemented this with other things that you can’t usually put in slide presentations: YouTube videos, extra resources, links to other textbooks that are more specific than this one. My goal is to make this a collection of the best information I can find on data science and statistical programming.
There is a downside to this approach: in most cases, this book includes way more information than you need. Everyone starts with a different level of computing experience, so I’ve attempted to make this book comprehensive. Unfortunately, that means some sections will seem like they are stating the obvious, and some sections will have more detail than you ever wanted to know. Use this book in the way that works best for you - skip over the stuff you know already, ignore the stuff that seems too complex until you understand the basics. Come back to the scary stuff later and see if it makes more sense to you.