Data Analysis and Graphics Using R (DAAG) covers an exceptionally large range of topics. Because of the book’s breadth, new and experienced R users alike will find the text helpful as a learning tool and resource, but it will be of most service to those who already have a basic understanding of statistics and the R system.

Although the text includes both an Introduction to R section (chapter one) and a discussion of the basics of quantitative data analysis (chapters two through four), these chapters will be most useful as overviews (or reviews for more experienced readers), as they lack the detail required to take a reader from no knowledge of these subjects to a functional understanding. For example, chapter one discusses importing data in .txt and .csv format, but the foreign package is not discussed until chapter fourteen – the final chapter of the book. In practice, .txt data structures are not common enough to justify relegating a discussion of the foreign package to the supplemental materials and a researcher stuck with a .sav or .dbf file would not leave chapter one with enough knowledge to import their data into R.

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