Getting started simulating data in R: some helpful functions and how to use them


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Knowing how to simulate data in R has been incredibly useful to me in my day-to-day work. Simulating data is useful not only for exploring the long-run behavior of a statistic but also allows you to make small datasets for working out hard data manipulation tasks or for testing your intuition about a mathematical relationship or statistical model. But how does a person get started with simulations?

In this talk I go over some of the functions R has available to help with simulating data. I discuss functions for random number generation and replicating elements of a vector. I go in depth on how to use these functions and then show how to create some small datasets with the tools I present. The last topic is about repeating the data generation process many times.

Interactive tutorial

In addition to the materials above, I have converted the workshop material into an interactive tutorial. This goes through the same information as in the PDF but allows you to work through it interactively in your web browser.

Tutorial: Getting started simulating data in R

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