Installing RProvider

The R type provider can be used on macOS, Windows, and Linux (for supported OS versions, see the .NET 10 OS support matrix).

There are three requirements to use the R type provider:

dotnet 10.0 or greater; and
R version 4.5.0 or greater.
A correctly set R_HOME environment variable (see below).

Note. If you require .NET framework / mono support, you should use RProvider 1.2 or earlier.

Setting the `R_HOME` environment variable

The R type provider requires that the R_HOME environment variable is set, so that it can find the R installation that you wish to use.

macOS

In a Terminal window, execute the following command to add the R_HOME environment variable permanently:

echo export R_HOME=$(R RHOME) >> ~/.zshenv

Linux

You can set the R_HOME environment variable in your current session using the command:

export R_HOME=$(R RHOME)

Windows

On Windows, R_HOME must point to the root of the R installation, not the bin directory. For example, if R is installed in:

C:\Program Files\R\R-4.5.0

from a command prompt use the following command to set the R_HOME permanently as a user environment variable:

setx R_HOME "C:\Program Files\R\R-4.5.0"

If R_HOME is not set, RProvider will search the standard installation directory ("C:\Program Files\R\") and automatically select the newest version matching: R-<major>.<minor>.<patch>.

Testing the R provider

You can now start experimenting with the R type provider using your favourite editor, or directly from the command line using

dotnet fsi

The easiest way to get started is to install Visual Studio Code, making sure to also install the Ionide-fsharp extension within the Extensions tab.

First, create a new file with the extension .fsx (e.g., test.fsx). Second, reference the R type provider package from NuGet by adding this line to the start of your file:

#r "nuget: RProvider,3.0.0"

Third, add your code. In this code, we load RProvider, then load some R packages using the open declarations.

// Pretty-print in F# interactive:
fsi.AddPrinter FSIPrinters.rValue

Now, a basic test to make sure it's working correctly.

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We can also do some basic plots. First, we can calculate sin using the R 'sin' function, and then extract the results from R to F# for plotting.

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However, it would be cleaner to keep the values in R like so, as R.sin supports vectors:

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Next, we can plot the nile flow using a standard R example dataset.

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If you encounter any issues, please do not hesitate to submit an issue! You can do that on the GitHub page. Before submitting an issue, please see the Diagnostics and debugging page, which tells you how to create a log file with more detailed information about the issues.