R programming for actuarial science

"The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the fundamentals of the R programming language, and the basic tools you will need to use this book; it is therefore an important chapter for readers new to R. The reader is advised, following reading this chapter, to proceed to Chapter 2 which, together with this chapter, forms our introduction to programming in R. R is an exceptional statistical computing tool which is increasingly used by researchers and students in many disciplines. R is an open-source language which one can use without purchasing a licence, and contribute to solving problems within the vast R community."