install the R extension from the marketplace ( R - Visual Studio Marketplace).install the `languageserver` package for R (install.packages(“languageserver”).Now that we’re done with that, lets get into some of the details: InstallationĪssuming you already have R installed on your system, Installing VSCode and R is very straightforward RStudio is an outstanding piece of software and has never given me any major problems during my workflows, this was just an experiment to find a one-size-fits all code editor/IDE. I decided to try VSCode for R because I wanted to see if I could use a single code editor for everything I do.

For everything else (Python, Jupyter, HTML, CSS, JS,etc ), I tend to use VSCode. I am somewhat of a intermediate programmer who doesn’t use R as much as some people but whenever I do, RStudio is my preferred editor of choice. So, I will not be talking a lot about RStudio for that reason, but going into the strengths and weaknesses of VSCode compared to RStudio.įurther, this is a very brief overview comparing the community (free) versions of both editors, I cannot speak to the R-Studio paid editions.

This writeup is for people who are very familiar with RStudio and want to see how the two compare. RStudio is the preferred IDE/Editor for running R code for most people, but VSCode has rapidly become one of the most popular code editors for a huge number of other languages.

Ms visual studio vs visual studio code