R Statistical Software for Data Analysts: Past Present and Future

R is an integrated collection of software facilities for data manipulation, calculation and graphical display. It is a statistical software for computing and graphics. It provides a wide variety of statistical and graphical techniques such as, linear and nonlinear modelling, statistical tests, time series analysis, classification, clustering, to name a few. It is the most comprehensive statistical analysis package available. It incorporates all of the standard statistical tests, models, and analyses, as well as providing a comprehensive language for managing and manipulating data. New technology and ideas often appear first in R. In this paper the past, present and future of this software were highlighted, compared with existing popular software. It was found that rate of growth of R is in increasing trend and has been growing exponentially. R in Past R is an integrated collection of software facilities for data manipulation, calculation and graphical display. Among other things it has an effective data handling and storage facility, a group of operators for calculations on arrays, in particular matrices, a large, coherent, integrated collection of intermediate tools for data analysis, graphical facilities for data analysis and display either directly at the computer or on hardcopy, and a well-developed, simple and effective programming language which includes conditionals, loops, user defined recursive functions and input and output facilities. R is very much a vehicle for newly developing methods of interactive data analysis. It has developed rapidly, and has been extended by a large collection of packages.