R Notebook Vs R Markdown
- R Markdown allows you to form dynamic documents that incorporate R code and text. It is a lightweight markup language while R Notebook is an interactive notebook interface that allows you to compile R code, visualize output, and form documents in real-time.
- R Markdown has complete support for LaTeX (A less-overhead procedure or writing reports that include R code and self-generated output), which shows that you can use LaTeX commands and syntax can be used to format text and create equations, tables, and figures in your document moreover R Notebook also supports LaTeX, but it is not as completely integrated as in R Markdown. You have to use the HTML output format and include LaTeX code in HTML code blocks.
- R Markdown documents are executed in a non-interactive R environment using the knitr( a lightweight API and literate programming engine designed to provide complete control of the output ) package to process code chunks and give output while R Notebook allows for interactive code chunks, which means you can run code and view output directly in the document. This is useful for exploratory analysis and data visualization.
- R Markdown is designed for creating documents with a wide range of output formats, including HTML, PDF, and Microsoft Word, and R Notebook is designed for interactive use and is ideal for sharing analysis and results with others in real-time.
Among the variety of options provided by RStudio R Markdown and R NoteBook is one of them which have minimal differences, by selecting either of them we come to glance at the R Markdown file with a slighter difference. While creating a new R Notebook it adds html_notebook in the output option in the header.
# The initialization of the .rmd file has the following code.
——-
title: “Example of R Notebook”
output:
html_document:
toc: true
toc_depth: 3
toc_float: true
——-
Creating an R Notebook
In this tutorial, we will be creating an R Markdown document known as an “R Notebook”. According to the R Notebook Documentation, an R Notebook is a type of R Markdown document that contains code chunks that can be run without any dependence. Any output generated by the code is displayed immediately below the input.
select File > New File > R Notebook from the files in RStudio.
Inserting Chunks in R Markdown
In R Markdown, a chunk is a code block that can be executed and displayed within a document. Chunks are enclosed within two sets of three backticks and can be labeled with optional chunk options that modify the chunk’s behavior or appearance. When an R Markdown document is rendered, chunks are executed in the order in which they appear in the document, and their output is displayed inline with the text or in a separate output section.
- This is an R Markdown Notebook. After executing this code in the notebook, the following result would be displayed.
- When you’ll click on the run button to execute this chunk by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter or clicking the cursor the mentioned output will be displayed.
- Click on the insert button on the toolbar or press Ctrl+Alt+I to add a new chunk.
- After saving the notebook an HTML file with its code and output will be saved.
- Press Ctrl+Shift+K or click on the preview button to view the HTML file.
In R Markdown, code blocks are defined by enclosing them within two sets of three backward ticks (“`). The contents of a code block are treated as R commands and are executed by the R interpreter. An example of a code block can be found in the default notebook template, which is typically the first one in the document.
To execute a specific code block in R Markdown, you can click the small green “Run” button located in the upper right-hand corner of the block. This button enables you to run the code within the block without executing the entire document.
When you click the “Run” button for a code block in R Markdown, the commands within that block are compiled, and any resulting output is displayed beneath the block. For instance, you can try running the first code block in the default template to see how it works. Once you compile the chunk, you should see a plot displayed within your R Notebook, as illustrated below:
R
plot (cars) |
Output:
Difference Between R MarkDown and R NoteBook
In this article, we will learn about two very commonly used R interfaces that is R MarkDown and R Notebook then we will also compare the two to analyze the difference between the two.