[R] Epicalc package

[Luciano La Sala]

Dear David, 

Thank you very much for your help! I think I have solved the issue. 

Lucho  

--- On Fri, 11/14/08, David Winsemius <dwinsemius at comcast.net> wrote:

From: David Winsemius <dwinsemius at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [R] Epicalc package
To: "Luciano La Sala" <luciano_la_sala at yahoo.com>
Cc: "r help" <r-help at r-project.org>
Date: Friday, November 14, 2008, 10:59 AM

On Nov 14, 2008, at 8:12 AM, Luciano La Sala wrote:

> Dear R-friends,
> 
> I am using the epicalc package and the manual by V. Chongsuvivatwong
"Analysis of epidemiological
> data using R and Epicalc" to get the hang of some basic
epidemiological analyses.
> 
> After running all the analyses of chapter 7, one is supposed to wrap it up
by saving the data writing:
> 
>> save(.data, file = "Chapter7.Rdata")
> 
> ... after writing the command and pressing Enter, the program just asks
for more input by printing out its prompt "<".

Isn't that actually indicating that the action was successful?

> Q: what am I supposed to do next?

? Perhaps you are presumed to need some rest and quitting would be appropriate.
Try quit()

> Where would the data be saved and in what format?

It is saved in the working directory in .Rdata format

> Can one retrieve it later?

That is what load() does for you. As the next chapter implies.

> 
> 
> ... then chapter 8 starts by loading the data saved from the preceding
chapter, writing:
> 
>> zap()
>> load("Chapter7.Rdata")
> 
> ... but, as I told you above, I am not being able to even save the data
from chapter 7 correctly, so I guess there’s nothing to load afterwards
really, and I can’t go on with the rest.

I saw no evidence that saving the file was unsuccessful. What happens after
typing the chapter 8 commands above and then entering ls() at the R prompt?
Although it's not a base function, I am presuming that zap() is an epicalc
function that cleared everything out. Don't you see that the the data
objects were loaded back into memory?

What happens when you type getwd()? Depending on your OS (which you have not
stated) you may or may not see any files with type .Rdata in that directory, but
it should be there. If you are in a Windoze variant you may need to explicitly
allow Windows Explorer to display full file names.

Best of luck;
David Winsemius

> Any tips will be very welcome!
> 
> Luciano
> Argentina