Help

The Help tab is a built-in R documentation browser. Search for any function, package, or topic and read its full help page without leaving the app.

R Documentation Browser

When you first open the Help tab, you see a search bar at the top and an empty content area. Type a function or topic name into the search bar to look it up.

Help tab on iPhone showing the search bar and empty documentation browser

Help tab on iPhone in dark mode showing the search bar

Help tab on iPad showing the search bar and empty documentation browser

Help tab on iPad in dark mode showing the search bar

Viewing Help Pages

Each help page follows R’s standard documentation layout. Here is what you see when you look up a function like mean:

Help page for mean() on iPhone showing title, description, usage, and arguments sections

Help page for mean() on iPhone in dark mode

Help page for mean() on iPad showing full documentation with title, description, usage, arguments, and examples

Help page for mean() on iPad in dark mode

A typical help page includes these sections:

  • Title and package badge: the function name and which package it belongs to (e.g., mean {base}).
  • Description: a brief summary of what the function does.
  • Usage: the function signature showing all arguments and their defaults.
  • Arguments: a detailed explanation of each parameter.
  • Details: additional information about behavior, edge cases, and related functions.
  • Examples: runnable code showing the function in action.

Use the Done button to close the help page, or the share button to share the documentation with someone else.

Accessing Help from the Console

You can open help pages directly from the Console using R’s built-in help syntax:

  • ?mean or help(mean) opens the help page for mean().
  • ?dplyr::filter opens help for a function in a specific package.
  • ?dplyr shows the package index page listing all its functions.

Running any of these commands in the Console automatically navigates to the Help tab and displays the result.

Use ?package_name to browse a package’s full function index. This is a quick way to discover what a package offers.