When I start R session from some directory, R automatically loads the corresponding workspace (if it exists). After I finish to work in this workspace I can decide if I want to modify (save) the current workspace. This logic is simple and clear.
What I do not understand, is what happens if I start R from some directory and then change the working directory by setwd(). As far as I understood the workspace corresponding to the new working directory will not be "loaded". I still see the variables and history from the previous working directory. Why?
Second, when I quit() R, I replace the work-space image corresponding to the "new" working directory by the workspace corresponding to the "old" directory. Do I interpret the behavior correctly? What is the logic behind this behavior? Can I switch to another work-space from R session?
Workspaces are stored in .RData files and are automatically loaded from current working directory when you start R. But working directory itself (and setwd() function that sets it) has nothing to do with workspace. You can load any workspace by explicitly specifying any .RData file:
load("c:/project/myfile.RData")
or
setwd("c:/project/")
load()
Related
When I setwd using Rstudio IDE GUI, then I go to create a new file... the default working directory is not the current working directory. What is a better Workflow? Any .Rprofile commands to always save in the working directory?
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As mentioned in the comments, using a project would certainly help. Projects will always set the working directory to the project root folder on opening. Additionally, previous commands and working environment is saved (if you want it to be), so you can get right back to where you were. This is especially useful if you are working on different assignments.
Additionally, you can use getwd() to get your current working directory. Remember that the RStudio file-browser doesn't update when you set your working directory in R.
Im working on a large project in Rstudio with code that takes a long time to load. I was wondering if there was an efficient way that I can save the state of my workspace and variables so that I can easily reopen my workspace when needed with all variables loaded. I know a little bit about .Rdata files but I was wondering how I can utilize them to do this. Thanks!
Rstudio (even R?) automatically saves your latest state into .Rdata in your getwd() directory.
You may have deactivated this during installation, in which case you can activate it again in Tools -> Global options -> General where you'll see the option under workspace.
If this doesn't work you can do this manually using save.image() and using load('.RData') on startup.
Similar questions, but not the question I have, were around loading a file that someone saved as somefilename.RData. I am trying to do something different.
What I am trying to do is load the actual .RData file that gets saved from an R session. The context is that I am using 2 different computers and am trying to download the .RData file from one computer and then load this same .RData file on a different computer in RStudio.
When I download the .RData file it shows up without the “.” (e.g., it shows up as RData). When I try to rename it “.RData”, Windows will not allow me to do so.
Is there a way to do what I am trying to do?
Thanks!
After playing around with this, I was able to load the file (even though it was called “RData“ and not called “.RData”, by using RStudio by going to Session > Load Workspace... and then navigating to that file. I had used File > Open File... which did not work
I'm new to R and frankly the amount of documentation is overwhelming, and I haven't been able to find the answer to this question.
I have created a number of .R script files, all stored in a folder that I can access on my server (let's say the folder is, using the Windows backslash character \\servername\Paige\myscripts)
I know that in R you can call each script individually, for example (using the forward slash required in R)
source(file="//servername/Paige/myscripts/con_mdb.r")
and now this script, con_mdb, is available for use.
If I want to make all the scripts in this folder available at startup, how do I do this?
Briefly:
Use your ~/.Rprofile in the directory found via Sys.getenv("HOME") (or if that fails, in R's own Rprofile.site)
Loop over the contents of the directory via dir() or list.files().
Source each file.
as eg via this one liner
sapply(dir("//servername/Paige/myscripts/", "*.r"), source)
but the real story is that you should not do this. Create a package instead, and load that. Bazillion other questions here on how to build a package. Research it -- it is worth it.
Far the best way is to create a package! But as first step, you could also create one r script file (collection.r) in your script directory which includes all the scripts in a relative manner.
In your separate project scripts you can than include only that script with
source(file="//servername/Paige/myscripts/collection.r", chdir = TRUE)
which changes the directory before sourcing. Therefore you would have only to include one file for each project.
In the collection file you could use a loop over all files (except collection.r) or simply list them all.
I asked this on Super User, but someone suggested that I take it here because there are many more R experts.
The question:
I have to keep navigating to my directory when I go to File > Change dir..., which is particularly annoying.
Does anyone know how to make R remember the previously used directory?
I keep all the code associated with a particular project in a file (or more often a series of files). The first line is usually
setwd(...)
which sets the directory.
Once a workspace has been saved in the desired directory, just start R by opening that workspace (rather than from the desktop or start menu). Then the directory is already set to where you want it.
I may not be answering your question, because it's a bit vague, but some thoughts:
You can store the location of 'my directory' in R's .GlobalEnv so that it starts there when you start R.
This article discuses how to have different working directories with corresponding different ".RData" files.
You could write a custom function that remembers the current directory before you set the new directory
cd <- function(x = "") {
logical (length = 0)
if (!is.logical(x)) {
cwd <- getwd()
Sys.setenv("R_OLDWD"=cwd)
setwd(x)
} else {
setwd(print(paste(Sys.getenv("R_OLDWD"))))
}
}
From the R for Windows FAQ:
The working directory is the directory from which Rgui or Rterm was launched, unless a shortcut was used when it is given by the `Start in' field of the shortcut's properties. You can find this from R code by the call getwd().
The home directory is set as follows: If environment variable R_USER is set, its value is used. Otherwise if environment variable HOME is set, its value is used. After those two user-controllable settings, R tries to find system-defined home directories. It first tries to use the Windows "personal" directory (typically C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents on Windows XP and C:\Users\username\Documents on Vista). If that fails, if both environment variables HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH are set (and they normally are), the value is ${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}. If all of these fail, the current working directory is used.
You can find this from R code by Sys.getenv("R_USER").
This depends on the system that your using. There are a few tricks to use but if your looking to run R from a system menu and have it remember the directory the quick answer is no that won't happen. Linux is pretty easy just navigate to the directory in the terminal first and that will solve the problem. I have no idea about macs, But I can talk about windows extensively. First if you navigate to the directory and save your workspace once then you can use the saved .RData file to double click and restore your workspace including current directory. My personal, and biased opinion is to use an editor like Notepad++ with NppToR that way when you spawn a Rgui window you inherit the active directory from the current script. It also provides a menu command to adjust the working directory to the current script's directory.
Another point is that you can always set the working directory with the setwd("path/to/dir/") command inside any R session on any platform.
I use StatET and Eclipse as my R user interface. It automatically sets the working directory to the location of my project folder. workspace = ${project_loc}.
It also automatically loads any saved workspace, when starting R from a particular project.
On Windows, I put a file Rgui.bat from code.google.com/p/batchfiles in my project directory and use this to start R.