Technical reference

Excel versions

The Excel walk-throughs have been created using Excel version 16.16.8 on Windows. Some of the Excel instructions will vary for Mac or Linux users. For more on using Excel see the official Excel help centre.

R versions

The R walk-throughs have been created using R version 3.5.0 and RStudio version 1.1.453 on Windows. If you are inexperienced in the use of R, we recommend the free Beginner’s guide to R by Computerworld. This course also describes the main components of the RStudio user interface. For R support more specific to economists, you may want to consult the pages on the ECLR wiki. On the CRAN Task Views page you can find links to useful packages sorted by topic.

Google Sheets versions

The Google Sheets walk-throughs have been created using Google Sheets on Windows, prior to the Google Sheets interface update in early 2019. There are no functionality changes, so the instructions are still valid, but there may be some visual differences between the walk-through images and the current Google Sheets interface. For more on using Google Sheets, see the official G Suite Learning Center.

Character encoding in R on Windows

Windows machines use a limited character encoding set by default, which means you might see some symbols as ‘???’. To resolve this, open the file in which you see the unusual symbols in RStudio, select ‘File’ > ‘Reopen with encoding…’ > ‘UTF-8’, and select ‘Set as default encoding for source files’, which will prevent this from happening in the future in RStudio.

Creating a folder on Mac

To create a folder on Mac, on your desktop or in Finder, use Shift-Command-N.

Finding your path on Mac

Right-click on the file or folder for which you want to find the path and select ‘Get info’. You can copy the file path from the ‘Where’ section of the info box that appears.

Finding your path on Windows

Right-click on the file or folder for which you want to find the path and select ‘Properties’. You can copy the file path from the ‘Location’ section of the ‘General’ tab of the properties box that appears.