Essential R Cheatsheets – The best R cheatsheets, collected, printed, and bound

🚀 Get the collection on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GH8MHRBF?binding=paperback

Ever had this feeling?

“This was so easy in R… what was the command again?”

Maybe you already rely on Posit’s excellent cheatsheets. But somehow they end up scattered across your desk – tucked under notebooks, hidden beneath coffee mugs, or buried in old printouts. And eventually you print them again, because you can’t remember where the last copy went.

This time, it’s different.

The idea is simple: collect, curate, print, and bind.

What you get here is a carefully selected collection of essential R cheatsheets – no clutter, no endless browser tabs, no searching through PDFs – just the commands and workflows you actually need, optimized for everyday use.

Why a printed collection?

Well – at least I need one.

When I think:

“How did I do this again?”

I turn to page 11 and immediately see that the Mann-Whitney U-test in R is called wilcox.test, and that the paired version is simply:

wilcox.test(..., paired = TRUE)

That’s faster than opening a browser, searching Stack Overflow, and digging through old answers.

And yes – I still think it’s faster than asking ChatGPT.

Less searching. More doing. R at speed.

Or consider cluster analysis. What was the name of that distance measure that works with mixed data types? Something with a g?

Turn to page 14:

“Gower distance is particularly useful because it works across mixed scale levels.”

How do I change scales in ggplot2 again?
How did pivot_longer() work?
How do I parse dates with lubridate?

The answers are already there.

About 99% of the R commands you’ll regularly use are condensed into roughly 80 pages.

Which cheatsheets are included?

  1. Basic Statistics
    Descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, contrast analysis, non-parametric tests, power analysis, correlation, regression, exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis

  2. Data Import (readr, readxl, googlesheets4)
    Reading, writing, column specification

  3. Data Cleaning (tidyr)
    Tibbles, reshaping data, splitting cells, expanding tables, handling missing values, nested data

  4. Data Transformation (dplyr)
    Summarizing, grouping, case manipulation, variable transformation, vectorized functions, joins

  5. Data Visualization (ggplot2)
    Geoms, stats, scales, coordinate systems, themes, faceting, labels, legends, zooming

  6. Apply Functions & Lists (purrr)
    Mapping, shortcuts, working with lists

  7. Strings (stringr)
    Detecting matches, mutating strings, subsetting, splitting and joining, ordering, helpers, regular expressions

  8. Factors (forcats)
    Inspecting, combining, ordering levels, modifying and dropping levels

  9. Dates & Times (lubridate)
    Date-times, rounding, stamping, time zones, arithmetic

  10. R Markdown / Quarto
    Workflow, knitr, citations, tables, rendering, publishing, reproducible reports

  11. RStudio / Posit IDE
    Editor features, debugging, version control, shortcuts, package development, visual editor

  12. Package Development (usethis, devtools)
    Package structure, DESCRIPTION, NAMESPACE, documentation, testing, pkgdown, releases

Important:
Most of these cheatsheets are already available individually as PDF or HTML from Posit (just search for “R cheatsheets”).
The purpose of this collection is different:

a minimal, carefully curated selection, optimized for high-quality printing, fast lookup, and long-term practical use.

Which versions are available?

The 3rd edition features:

  • larger fonts,
  • improved readability,
  • approximately 80 pages,
  • and a stronger focus on clarity over decorative visuals.

It is available in four formats:

  • Softcover (grayscale) – the most affordable and practical option for everyday use
  • Softcover (standard color) – color version at a moderate price
  • Hardcover (grayscale) – durable and ideal for heavy use
  • Hardcover (premium color) – the premium edition, also suitable as a gift for R enthusiasts

The 2nd edition is still available because it follows a different philosophy:

  • more compact layout,
  • smaller font size,
  • around 40 pages,
  • slightly more content per page,
  • and a stronger emphasis on visual density.

It is available only in premium color.

So the choice mainly comes down to preference:

  • compact and visually dense,
  • or larger, cleaner, and easier to read.

If you are unsure which version to choose, I personally use the grayscale edition. I like the simplicity, the cream-colored paper, and the lower price. If you expect to use it heavily or carry it around often, I would recommend the grayscale hardcover edition for additional durability.

Where can I get it?

👉 Amazon series page:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GH8MHRBF?binding=paperback

Feedback

Do you have suggestions for improvements?
Is something unclear, missing, or incorrect?

I’d love to hear from you.

📧 [email protected]

Or leave a review on Amazon – feedback helps improve future editions.