R has several basic data types including integers, numerics, characters, complexes, and logicals. Objects in R include vectors, matrices, lists, data frames, factors, and environments. Functions like length(), mode(), class(), and str() can provide properties of R objects. R supports control structures like if/else, for loops, while loops, and repeat loops. R also has rich graphics capabilities for creating plots, histograms and other visualizations using both base and lattice graphics. Common packages used with R include those for statistics, machine learning, and working with time series and financial data.