As others have said, try data.table. You assessment is pretty accurate. R is almost the opposite of Python -- you HAVE to use lots of external libraries. Whe

As others have said, try data.table. You assessment is pretty accurate. R is almost the opposite of Python -- you HAVE to use lots of external libraries. Whereas in Python, the core is super solid, but the libraries you get are of varying quality. R took me the longest to learn out of any language. I currently have coworkers struggling with R, and cursing it. But the learning pays off... it's pretty much the only option out there right now (and yes I use Python for almost everything, but you need R too.)