[R-SIG-Mac] How to find the path for a file to be read with read.table() in a Mac

[Jeff Newmiller]

Even better is to learn one of the many ways to start R in a working directory of your choice, so you don't have to mix code and data from different projects together in one directory just because that happens to be where your default R icon sets it up.

Some ways:
a) Use Terminal and the cd command before invoking R.
b) Create a .RData file with nothing in it in the desired directory. Double-click that to automatically set the working directory there in R.
c) Use RStudio, which lets you create an Rproj file that serves the same purpose as the .RData file but doesn't risk injecting broken code or old data into your working environment.

On February 13, 2021 8:02:54 AM PST, "Parkhurst, David F." <parkhurs using indiana.edu> wrote:
>Ah.  That will simplify the process a lot!
>
>From: Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan using gmail.com>
>Date: Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 10:52 AM
>To: Parkhurst, David F. <parkhurs using indiana.edu>, r-sig-mac using r-project.org
><r-sig-mac using r-project.org>
>Subject: Re: [R-SIG-Mac] How to find the path for a file to be read
>with read.table() in a Mac
>On 13/02/2021 10:42 a.m., Parkhurst, David F. wrote:
>> I�ve several times to figure this out with no luck.  I�ve moved a tab
>delimited text file (created from excel) to the desktop to simplify the
>path.  If I click on the file and ask Get Info, it lists �Where� as 
>iCloud Drive > Desktop.  If I copy that to the clipboard and paste that
>into a read.table command in the R console, it comes up as
>/Users/DFP/Desktop.  But if I try
>read.table("\\Users\\DFP\\Desktop\\moabsitechem<file:///Users/DFP/Desktop/moabsitechem>"),
>I get No such file or directory.  How can I get that file into a data
>frame?
>>
>> Is there some place in my Mac that I can put the file so I could
>enter just the file name, and not the whole path?
>
>Sorry, forget to answer your actual question:
>
>You can use getwd() to find the working directory.  If you put the file
>there, you won't need to specify the path.
>
>Duncan Murdoch
>
>	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

-- 
Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.