[R] file.choose()

Wed Mar 4 11:23:05 CET 2020

You can see the source code for this in

https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/src/extra/graphapp/dialogs.c

The function handling the dialog is askfilenames, starting at line 229. 
I'd guess the weird behaviour where file.choose() acts differently on 
the first and second calls in Rui's example is because the directory is 
saved before the peekevent() calls on line 274.  However, I can't build 
R on Windows any more, so I can't test this.

Duncan Murdoch

On 04/03/2020 4:48 a.m., Ivan Calandra wrote:
> Hi Rui,
> 
> I hadn't checked it, but indeed, calling file.choose() a second time
> works as expected when it doesn't the first time already.
> 
> Best,
> Ivan
> 
> --
> Dr. Ivan Calandra
> TraCEr, laboratory for Traceology and Controlled Experiments
> MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and
> Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution
> Schloss Monrepos
> 56567 Neuwied, Germany
> +49 (0) 2631 9772-243
> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ivan_Calandra
> 
> On 04/03/2020 10:45, Rui Barradas wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> This is off-topic, it's been a while since I update my version of
>> Windows.
>>
>> Running R 3.6.3, RGui on Windows 7, sessionInfo() below.
>>
>> The unexpected behavior I got is different from those posted so far.
>> In all cases the dialog window was closed without choosing a file.
>> Note: I don't have a directory C:\data so I changed to the home dir.
>>
>> old_dir <- getwd()
>> old_dir
>> #[1] "C:/Programas/R/R-3.6.3/bin/x64"
>>
>> file.choose()    # works, current dir was not changed
>>
>> setwd('~/')
>> getwd()
>> #[1] "C:/Users/Rui/Documents"
>>
>> file.choose()    # doesn't work, still in
>> "C:/Programas/R/R-3.6.3/bin/x64"
>> file.choose()    # works at the second time
>>
>> setwd('C:/')
>> getwd()
>> #[1] "C:/"
>>
>> file.choose()    # doens't work, still in "C:/Users/Rui/Documents"
>> file.choose()    # works at the second time
>>
>> setwd(old_dir)
>> getwd()
>> #[1] "C:/Programas/R/R-3.6.3/bin/x64"
>>
>> file.choose()    # doesn't work, still in "C:/"
>> file.choose()    # works at the second time
>>
>>
>> sessionInfo()
>> R version 3.6.3 (2020-02-29)
>> Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
>> Running under: Windows 7 x64 (build 7601) Service Pack 1
>>
>> Matrix products: default
>>
>> locale:
>> [1] LC_COLLATE=Portuguese_Portugal.1252 LC_CTYPE=Portuguese_Portugal.1252
>> [3] LC_MONETARY=Portuguese_Portugal.1252 LC_NUMERIC=C
>> [5] LC_TIME=Portuguese_Portugal.1252
>>
>> attached base packages:
>> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>>
>> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
>> [1] compiler_3.6.3
>>
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>>
>> Rui Barradas
>>
>>
>>
>> Às 08:05 de 04/03/20, Ivan Calandra escreveu:
>>> Thanks Petr for checking.
>>>
>>> This unexpected behavior is reproducible on my machine, both with the
>>> RGui and RStudio, both with R3.6.2 and 3.6.3.
>>>> sessionInfo()
>>> R version 3.6.3 (2020-02-29)
>>> Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
>>> Running under: Windows 10 x64 (build 18362)
>>> Matrix products: default
>>> locale:
>>> [1] LC_COLLATE=English_United Kingdom.1252  LC_CTYPE=English_United
>>> Kingdom.1252
>>> [3] LC_MONETARY=English_United Kingdom.1252
>>> LC_NUMERIC=C
>>> [5] LC_TIME=English_United Kingdom.1252
>>> attached base packages:
>>> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>>> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
>>> [1] compiler_3.6.3 tools_3.6.3
>>>
>>> Couldn't be that it behaves differently when the working directory is
>>> the root of the drive (D:/) vs. a folder on the drive (D:/Data)?
>>>
>>> Ivan
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Dr. Ivan Calandra
>>> TraCEr, laboratory for Traceology and Controlled Experiments
>>> MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and
>>> Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution
>>> Schloss Monrepos
>>> 56567 Neuwied, Germany
>>> +49 (0) 2631 9772-243
>>> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ivan_Calandra
>>>
>>> On 04/03/2020 7:55, PIKAL Petr wrote:
>>>> Hi Ivan
>>>>
>>>> I tried your examples and they behave as expected. Second one opens
>>>> D:/ and
>>>> third should be setwd("D:/Data/") to open in Data folder.
>>>>
>>>>> sessionInfo()
>>>> R Under development (unstable) (2019-07-21 r76854)
>>>> Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
>>>> Running under: Windows 10 x64 (build 18363)
>>>>
>>>> So the problem is in your setting.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>> Petr
>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: R-help <r-help-bounces using r-project.org> On Behalf Of Ivan Calandra
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, March 3, 2020 4:48 PM
>>>>> To: r-help using r-project.org
>>>>> Subject: Re: [R] file.choose()
>>>>>
>>>>> That's what I was about to answer but tried first and it did not work.
>>>>> Now I tried more and noticed an unexpected behavior:
>>>>>
>>>>> getwd()
>>>>> [1] "C:/Users/.../Documents"
>>>>> file.choose() ## opens in "C:/Users/.../Documents" as expected
>>>>>
>>>>> setwd("D:/")
>>>>> getwd()
>>>>> [1] "D:/"
>>>>> file.choose() ## unexpectedly, opens in "C:/Users/.../Documents"
>>>>>
>>>>> setwd("D:/Data")
>>>>> getwd()
>>>>> [1] "D:/Data"
>>>>> file.choose() ## opens in "D:/Data" as expected
>>>>>
>>>>> Is that normal behavior?
>>>>>
>>>>> Ivan
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> Dr. Ivan Calandra
>>>>> TraCEr, laboratory for Traceology and Controlled Experiments MONREPOS
>>>>> Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural
>>>>> Evolution
>>>>> Schloss Monrepos
>>>>> 56567 Neuwied, Germany
>>>>> +49 (0) 2631 9772-243
>>>>> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ivan_Calandra
>>>>>
>>>>> On 03/03/2020 16:36, David Winsemius wrote:
>>>>>> On 3/3/20 7:29 AM, Dennis Weygand wrote:
>>>>>>> How do I change the default directory that file.choose()
>>>>>>> (Windows-10)
>>>>>>> uses?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ?setwd
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>>>>> 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 using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>>> 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 using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> 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.
>