How to read package documents in R programming effectively

Reference documents for a package in R programming can be lengthy. But there are a few ways to parse information for a library quickly.

Package reference documents are the lifeline for data scientists using R programming. When data scientists look for libraries hosted in CRAN, they usually find the reference documents for the given library. Every package hosted in CRAN is required to have a document.

Reference documents provide background information on the functions and datasets contained in the libraries. This helps data science professionals understand how to best use those libraries in their programs or, thanks to Shiny, their web apps.

But there’s one aspect that I’ve noticed. They can get very lengthy. Some libraries like yfR, which I did a review for can have a document with only 10 pages. This is because it only has a few functions. Others like GT can be a book-sized document. GT‘s document is 300 pages. Torch, a machine learning library, has a 580-page document.

So how do you get through and use these effectively to get code out the door?

Well, there are a couple of tips I’ve learned over the years and these might be helpful to you.