R Statistics Data Set

A data set is a collection of data, often presented in a table.
There is a popular built-in data set in R called "mtcars" (Motor Trend Car Road Tests), which is 
retrieved from the 1974 Motor Trend US Magazine.
In the examples below (and for the next chapters), we will use the mtcars 
data set, for statistical purposes:
Result:
                     mpg cyl  disp  hp drat    wt  qsec vs am gear carb
Mazda RX4           21.0   6 160.0 110 3.90 2.620 16.46  0  1    4    4
Mazda RX4 Wag       21.0   6 160.0 110 3.90 2.875 17.02  0  1    4    4
Datsun 710          22.8   4 108.0  93 3.85 2.320 18.61  1  1    4    1
Hornet 4 Drive      21.4   6 258.0 110 3.08 3.215 19.44  1  0    3    1
Hornet Sportabout   18.7   8 360.0 175 3.15 3.440 17.02  0  0    3    2
Valiant             18.1   6 225.0 105 2.76 3.460 20.22  1  0    3    1
Duster 360          14.3   8 360.0 245 3.21 3.570 15.84  0  0    3    4
Merc 240D           24.4   4 146.7  62 3.69 3.190 20.00  1  0    4    2
Merc 230            22.8   4 140.8  95 3.92 3.150 22.90  1  0    4    2
Merc 280            19.2   6 167.6 123 3.92 3.440 18.30  1  0    4    4
Merc 280C           17.8   6 167.6 123 3.92 3.440 18.90  1  0    4    4
Merc 450SE          16.4   8 275.8 180 3.07 4.070 17.40  0  0    3    3
Merc 450SL          17.3   8 275.8 180 3.07 3.730 17.60  0  0    3    3
Merc 450SLC         15.2   8 275.8 180 3.07 3.780 18.00  0  0    3    3
Cadillac Fleetwood  10.4   8 472.0 205 2.93 5.250 17.98  0  0    3    4
Lincoln Continental 10.4   8 460.0 215 3.00 5.424 17.82  0  0    3    4
Chrysler Imperial   14.7   8 440.0 230 3.23 5.345 17.42  0  0    3    4
Fiat 128            32.4   4  78.7  66 4.08 2.200 19.47  1  1    4    1
Honda Civic         30.4   4  75.7  52 4.93 1.615 18.52  1  1    4    2
Toyota Corolla      33.9   4  71.1  65 4.22 1.835 19.90  1  1    4    1
Toyota Corona       21.5   4 120.1  97 3.70 2.465 20.01  1  0    3    1
Dodge Challenger    15.5   8 318.0 150 2.76 3.520 16.87  0  0    3    2
AMC Javelin         15.2   8 304.0 150 3.15 3.435 17.30  0  0    3    2
Camaro Z28          13.3   8 350.0 245 3.73 3.840 15.41  0  0    3    4
Pontiac Firebird    19.2   8 400.0 175 3.08 3.845 17.05  0  0    3    2
Fiat X1-9           27.3   4  79.0  66 4.08 1.935 18.90  1  1    4    1
Porsche 914-2       26.0   4 120.3  91 4.43 2.140 16.70  0  1    5    2
Lotus Europa        30.4   4  95.1 113 3.77 1.513 16.90  1  1    5    2
Ford Pantera L      15.8   8 351.0 264 4.22 3.170 14.50  0  1    5    4
Ferrari Dino        19.7   6 145.0 175 3.62 2.770 15.50  0  1    5    6
Maserati Bora       15.0   8 301.0 335 3.54 3.570 14.60  0  1    5    8
Volvo 142E          21.4   4 121.0 109 4.11 2.780 18.60  1  1    4    2

You can use the question mark (?) to get information about the mtcars data set:
Result:
The data was extracted from the 1974 Motor Trend US magazine,
and comprises fuel consumption and 10 aspects of
automobile design and performance for 32 automobiles (1973-74
models).

mtcars
A data frame with 32 observations on 11 (numeric) variables.

Henderson and Velleman (1981) comment in a footnote to Table 1:
'Hocking [original transcriber]'s noncrucial coding of the
Mazda's rotary engine as a straight six-cylinder engine and the
Porsche's flat engine as a V engine, as well as the inclusion of the
diesel Mercedes 240D, have been retained to enable direct comparisons
to be made with previous analyses.'

Henderson and Velleman (1981),
Building multiple regression models interactively.
Biometrics, 37, 391-411.

require(graphics)
pairs(mtcars, main = "mtcars data", gap = 1/4)
coplot(mpg ~ disp | as.factor(cyl), data = mtcars,
       panel = panel.smooth, rows = 1)
## possibly more meaningful, e.g., for summary() or bivariate plots:
mtcars2 <- within(mtcars, {
   vs <- factor(vs, labels = c("V", "S"))
   am <- factor(am, labels = c("automatic", "manual"))
   cyl  <- ordered(cyl)
   gear <- ordered(gear)
   carb <- ordered(carb)
})
summary(mtcars2)

Use the dim() function to find the dimensions of the data set, and the names() function to view the names of the
variables:
Result:
[1] 32 11
 [1] "mpg"  "cyl"  "disp" "hp"   "drat" "wt"   "qsec" "vs"   "am"   "gear"
[11] "carb"

Use the rownames() function to get the name of each row in the first column, which is the name of each car:
Result:
 [1] "Mazda RX4"           "Mazda RX4 Wag"       "Datsun 710"         
 [4] "Hornet 4 Drive"      "Hornet Sportabout"   "Valiant"            
 [7] "Duster 360"          "Merc 240D"           "Merc 230"           
[10] "Merc 280"            "Merc 280C"           "Merc 450SE"         
[13] "Merc 450SL"          "Merc 450SLC"         "Cadillac Fleetwood" 
[16] "Lincoln Continental" "Chrysler Imperial"   "Fiat 128"           
[19] "Honda Civic"         "Toyota Corolla"      "Toyota Corona"      
[22] "Dodge Challenger"    "AMC Javelin"         "Camaro Z28"         
[25] "Pontiac Firebird"    "Fiat X1-9"           "Porsche 914-2"      
[28] "Lotus Europa"        "Ford Pantera L"      "Ferrari Dino"       
[31] "Maserati Bora"       "Volvo 142E"         
From the examples above, we have found out that the data set has 32 observations 
(Mazda RX4, Mazda RX4 Wag, Datsun 710, etc) and 11 variables 
(mpg, cyl, disp, etc).
A variable is defined as something that can be measured or counted.
Here is a brief explanation of the variables from the mtcars data set:
If you want to print all values that belong to a variable, access the data 
frame by using the $ sign, and the name of the variable 
(for example cyl (cylinders)):
Result:
 [1] 6 6 4 6 8 6 8 4 4 6 6 8 8 8 8 8 8 4 4 4 4 8 8 8 8 4 4 4 8 6 8 4
To sort the values, use the sort() function:
Result:
 [1] 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
From the examples above, we see that most cars have 4 and 8 cylinders.
Now that we have some information about the data set, we can start to analyze it with some statistical numbers.
For example, we can use the summary() function to get a statistical summary of the data:
Do not worry if you do not understand the output numbers. You will master them shortly.
The summary() function returns six statistical numbers for each variable:
Min
First quantile (percentile)
Median
Mean
Third quantile (percentile)
Max
We will cover all of them, along with other statistical numbers in the next chapters.
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