ArticleImport
Since there are many tutorial written to import and export data, we will refer to pages that do a good job in describing that process (below).
However we have some tips for users:
- Know your working directory
Your working directory is the first place R looks for reading and writing files, so your life will be a lot easier if you know where this directory is. Working directory can be looked up with R via the command:
getwd()To reassign your working directory, put your directory path in quotes (single or double):
setwd("C:/temp")or in Linux and Mac
setwd("~/temp")Once you know your work directory, you can supply a filename of the files residing in the working directory without specifying the exact path, e.g.
read.csv("mydata.csv")instead of
read.csv("C:/temp/mydata.csv")- Use a single forward slash for directory path (think Linux/ Mac) or use double backslash in Windows:
setwd("C:\\temp")- Make sure you use the correctly capitalized file names. This process is easily accomplished with "auto-complete as you type" feature via the "Tab" button across different platforms. Or in Windows, drag-and-drop the file into the R main session window, and the full path of that file will be exposed.
