[R] Storing user-defined R functions

[David Scott]

  On 25/03/11 09:08, Thomas Lumley wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 5:11 AM, David.Epstein
> <David.Epstein at warwick.ac.uk>  wrote:
>> Hello, I don't want to find out how to make packages unless that becomes
>> necessary. Also, I don't want to clog up the computer memory with functions
>> that I'm not using. (It would be great if someone in this forum would
>> explain how memory is used when I type library(MASS) and then use only one
>> function from MASS. Are all the many MASS functions then residing in memory,
>> or only the one I called?)
> There is a lazy-loading system that loads functions and datasets only
> on demand.  Not all packages use it, but MASS does.
>
>> Is there some standard way of
>> 1. storing the R functions that I define, each in a separate file in some
>> standard directory, and then
>> 2. calling one of these functions without having to include the path to the
>> relevant directory?
>> 3. If so, are there conventional places to keep such files, akin to
>> /usr/local/bin in Unix?
> No.
>
> You really do want to learn to make packages.  It isn't that hard.
>
> However, another possibility is to use save() to save a file
> containing all your functions and then use attach() to make these
> functions available.  This works like making a package except that you
> don't get lazy-loading, you don't get documentation, and you don't get
> the package checks.
>
>     -thomas
>
Another work around would involve defining a little function in your 
.Rprofile, as follows.

Choose a location for your code. The function would take the name of the 
file, prepend the path to the directory where your code is located and 
then call source. Two or three lines would do it.

Also, who knows, maybe Gabor has something clever in his batch files, he 
usually seems to.

David Scott

-- 
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David Scott	Department of Statistics
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Director of Consulting, Department of Statistics