R statistics

Q: How do I enjoy high quality statistic analysis in GRASS?

A: Well, GRASS has got an interface to the most powerful statistics analysis package around: R (http://www.r-project.org)

First of all you need to add R to your system, the R version must be >= 1.9.1:

• Debian GNU/Linux user, see: http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian/README
• Ubuntu Linux see: http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/README
• RedHat, Suse, Mandrake and similar distros: take the latest R RPM and install it

Once you have R in your system, take a look at http://grass.itc.it/statsgrass/grass_r_install.html.

Quick start

For the impatient just start it:

 > R
 
 #and install packages directly from the net
 pkgs <- c('akima', 'spgrass6', 'RODBC', 'VR')
 
 install.packages(pkgs, dependencies=TRUE, type='source') 

Notes

• All the necessary functions for the GRASS 6 interface are now in packages on CRAN, so that on Linux/Unix (or Mac OSX) installing rgdal from source with PROJ4 and GDAL installed, or Windows installing from binary, the required packages are: sp; maptools (now includes spmaptools); rgdal (now includes spGDAL, spproj); spgrass6 - now all on CRAN.

See also

• http://grass.ibiblio.org/statsgrass/index.php#grassR

• Using GRASS and R: http://grass.itc.it/statsgrass/grass_r_interface.html

• Connecting R to RDBMS: http://grass.itc.it/statsgrass/r_and_dbms.html

• R-Statistics homepage http://www.r-project.org

• R Spatial Projects http://sal.uiuc.edu/csiss/Rgeo//

• http://r-spatial.sourceforge.net/xtra/xtra.RHnw.html#spgrass6

• Neural Networks with GRASS and R (posted by Markus Neteler on the grass-user mailing list) http://www.uam.es/proyectosinv/Mclim/pdf/MBenito_EcoMod.pdf

• Using R and GRASS with cygwin: It is possible to use Rterm inside the GRASS shell in cygwin, just as in Unix/Linux or OSX. You should not, however, start Rterm from a cygwin xterm, because Rterm is not expecting to be run in an xterm under Windows, and loses its input. If you use the regular cygwin bash shell, but need to start display windows, start X from within GRASS with startx &, and then start Rterm in the same cygwin shell, not in the xterm.

• Spatial data in R (sp) is a R library that provides classes and methods for spatial data (points, lines, polygons, grids), and to new or existing spatial statistics R packages that use sp, depend on sp, or will become dependent on sp, such as maptools, rgdal, splancs, spgrass6, gstat, spgwr and many others.

• RPy - Python interface to the R Programming Language

Articles

• GRASS News vol.3, June 2005 (R. Bivand. Interfacing GRASS 6 and R. GRASS Newsletter, 3:11-16, June 2005. ISSN 1614-8746).
• OSGeo Journal vol. 1 May 2007 (R. Bivand. Using the R— GRASS interface. OSGeo Journal, 1:31-33, May 2007. ISSN 1614-8746).