[R] Saving R files

Sun Mar 9 21:19:47 CET 2014

I hadn’t seen an error message because I hadn’t tried it yet.  I was 
leery of doing so for two reasons.  First, I didn’t seen anything in the 
?save page that said it was possible to save to a file and directory of 
the user’s choice, and later to retrieve it!  It would be very useful to 
a novice like me if the ?save page had an example at the end showing 
that being done.  (Frankly, many of the help pages seem very dense, and 
not sufficiently informative, to a novice like me.)

The second thing that made me leery of trying it was the text in the “R 
for Windows FAQ” in section 2.10, that made me think (evidently wrongly) 
that my projects had to be kept within R’s own directories.

I think you are suggesting that what I was asking about would work if I 
used forward slashes.  I'll try that.

Thank you for the information you’ve provided.  It is helpful.

David

On 3/9/2014 3:05 PM, William Dunlap wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Can I do this (in Windows 7) to save everything that comes up with ls(),
>>>>>>>>> guessed at by what I find with ?rm:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> save(list=ls(),file="C:\am\myfiles\ProjectA.RData")
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Or would I need forward slashes, but this would otherwise work?
>
> You did not show the error message you got from that failing command.
> I get:
>     > x <- 1
>     > save("x", file="C:\am\myfiles\ProjectA.RData")
>     Error: '\m' is an unrecognized escape in character string starting ""C:\am\m"
>     > "C:\am\myfiles\ProjectA.RData"
>     Error: '\m' is an unrecognized escape in character string starting ""C:\am\m"
> which is intended to make it clear that "\m" is not legal in a string.  If, instead of 'escape'
> it said 'backslashed character', would you have understood that the problem is
> with how backslashes are represented in R strings?
>
> Bill Dunlap
> TIBCO Software
> wdunlap tibco.com
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf
>> Of Ista Zahn
>> Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2014 7:25 AM
>> To: David Parkhurst
>> Cc: r-help at r-project.org
>> Subject: Re: [R] Saving R files
>>
>> Hi David,
>>
>> Again, please keep the list copied.
>>
>> I think the documentation is clear, but if you still have doubts why
>> don't you try it and see?
>>
>> Best,
>> Ista
>>
>> On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 11:39 PM, David Parkhurst <parkhurs at imap.iu.edu> wrote:
>>> That talks about saving to file ".RData".
>> I'm still asking, can I save to
>>> files with an arbitrary name in any directory on my hard drive? Again, that
>>> may be implied, but I wasn't confident that if I saved my workspace that
>>> way, that I would be able get it back later, after working on other
>>> projects.  I'd like to put files in specific places where I can find them,
>>> such as to the file="C:\am\myfiles\ProjectA.RData" that I referred to in my
>>> original posting.
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>>
>>> On 3/8/2014 11:29 PM, Ista Zahn wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 11:14 PM, David Parkhurst <parkhurs at imap.iu.edu>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> The penultimate line in ?rm is "rm(list = ls())".  I don't see anything
>>>>> that
>>>>> specific in ?save, and that's why I asked.  Perhaps there's language in
>>>>> ?save that implies that to those more experienced in R than I am, but I'm
>>>>> not that experienced.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Yes--see e.g., the second paragraph of the description in ?save:
>>>>
>>>> "     ‘save.image()’ is just a short-cut for ‘save my current
>>>>        workspace’, i.e., ‘save(list = ls(all = TRUE), file = ".RData")’.
>>>>        It is also what happens with ‘q("yes")’."
>>>>
>>>> The documentation of the arguments list to save (especially the "list"
>>>> argument) will also tell you that you can pass a character vector of
>>>> object names to be saved. Such a vector can be returned from 'ls()'.
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>> Ista
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> David
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 3/8/2014 10:07 PM, Ista Zahn wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi David,
>>>>>> Please keep the list copied, that will give someone else an
>>>>>> opportunity to respond to you as well (I've cc'd the list here).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 8:42 PM, IU <parkhurs at imap.iu.edu> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thank you---but can't you tell from what I wrote that I DID read ?save,
>>>>>>> and didn't see the answer to my question there.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> To be honest, no. You say you guessed at the the syntax based on what
>>>>>> you read in ?rm. Why you would do that instead of referring directly
>>>>>> to ?save is made me suspect that you didn't actually read the
>>>>>> documentation, especially since the relevant arguments are the same in
>>>>>> both functions. At any rate, what is it you find unclear about the
>>>>>> documentation for the save function? It all seems pretty clear to me,
>>>>>> but then I've been reading R documentation for some time. Perhaps if
>>>>>> you explain what you didn't understand someone can help you clarify.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> And thanks for the reminder about the FAQ.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sure, anytime.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Best,
>>>>>> Ista
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> DFP (iPad)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Mar 8, 2014, at 8:31 PM, Ista Zahn <istazahn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi David,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Did you actually read the help file for 'save'? The answer to your
>>>>>>>> fist question is there. The answer to your second question is in
>>>>>>>> section 2.16 of the 'R for Windows FAQ'.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Best,
>>>>>>>> Ista
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 7:45 PM, David Parkhurst
>>>>>>>>> <parkhurs at imap.iu.edu>
>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Sometimes I don't understand the details of writeups I get, with
>>>>>>>>> ?save
>>>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>>> the like.  Anyway, that's my problem now.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Can I do this (in Windows 7) to save everything that comes up with
>>>>>>>>> ls(),
>>>>>>>>> guessed at by what I find with ?rm:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> save(list=ls(),file="C:\am\myfiles\ProjectA.RData")
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Or would I need forward slashes, but this would otherwise work?  If
>>>>>>>>> not, how
>>>>>>>>> could I accomplish this goal?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> David
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>>>>>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>>>>>>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>>>>>>>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>>>>>>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.