Why Seek Help?

• Learning R or any programming language comes with challenges.

• Knowing how to find help effectively can accelerate your learning and problem-solving.

Accessing Documentation

# Use the ? followed by a function name to access its documentation
?mean

Tips

• Comprehensive details on usage, arguments, and examples.

• Explore the ‘See Also’ section for related functions or methods.

Stack Overflow

• A vital resource for programmers.

• Search for existing answers or ask a new question.

Best Practices

• Search before asking to avoid duplicates.

• Be specific in your questions and provide minimal reproducible examples.

R-Bloggers, R-Help Mailing List, and Social Media

• R-Bloggers: A great source for tutorials and R news.

• R-Help Mailing List: For deeper dives into specific problems.

• Twitter: Use #rstats for quick tips and community support.

Best Practices

• Be specific about your problem.

• Provide code snippets and describe what you expect vs. what you’re getting.

• Mention any packages or data structures you’re using.

Structure Your Question

1. Brief Description: What you’re trying to achieve.

2. Problem Statement: What issue you’re encountering.

3. Attempts: What you’ve tried and resources you’ve consulted.

4. Expected vs. Actual Results: Clarify your end goal.

"I'm using the `ggplot2` package to create a scatter plot. I
want to color points by a categorical variable, but the plot
isn't displaying as expected. Here's my code:

`ggplot(data, aes(x = var1, y = var2, color = category)) + geom_point()`

I expected each category to have a different color, but all
points are the same color. I've checked the variable
`category`, and it's a factor with three levels. What could
be causing this issue?"