Time series forecasting in R

A time series graph is one that evaluates activity over a period of time. A more specific time series plot can be generated using the ts() and plot.ts() functions in R, as seen in the following scripts:

Query1_TS<-ts(SQL_Query_1$Discount) 
plot.ts(Query1_TS, xlab = 'Week (1-52)', ylab = 'Discount', main = 'Time Series of Discount Code by Week') 

The output of the time series script can be seen here:

At first glimpse, the time series plot looks no different from earlier line charts developed in this chapter. The difference lies within the inherent qualities of a time series plot, which allows you to view activity over specified intervals over the course of a year. The specified periods can be in hours, days, weeks, months, or even quarters. A time series plot will display seasonal activity that repeats around the same time each year. Due to this seasonality, time series plots are strong candidates for forecasting. Let's get a little bit of background...