This is a quick cheat sheet of commands for working with built-in datasets in R.

R has a number of base datasets that come with the install, and there are many packages that also include additional datasets.  These are very useful and easy to work with.

> ?datasets                                  # to get help info on the datasets package

> library(help=”datasets”)     # provides detailed information on the datasets package, including listing and description of the datasets in the package

> data()                                       # lists all the datasets currently available by package

> data(package = .packages(all.available = TRUE))  # lists all the available datasets by package even if not installed

> data(EuStockMarkets)            # loads  the dataset EuStockMarkets into the workspace

> summary(AirPassengers)      # provides a summary of the dataset AirPassengers

> ?airquality                                    # outputs in the Help window, information about the dataset “airquality”

> str(airmiles)                                 # shows the structure of the dataset “airmiles”

> View(airmiles)             # shows the data of the dataset “airmiles” in spreadsheet format