Startup and Closing Behavior

  • Starting R: The R GUI versions, including RStudio, under Windows and Mac OS X can be opened by double-clicking their icons. Alternatively, one can start it by typing R in a terminal (default under Linux).

  • Startup/Closing Behavior: The R environment is controlled by hidden files in the startup directory: .RData, .Rhistory and .Rprofile (optional).

  • Closing R:

q()  
Save workspace image? [y/n/c]:
  • Note: When responding with y, then the entire R workspace will be written to the .RData file which can become very large. Often it is sufficient to just save an analysis protocol in an R source file. This way one can quickly regenerate all data sets and objects.

Create an object with the assignment operator <- or =

object <- ...

List objects in current R session

ls()

Return content of current working directory

dir()

Return path of current working directory

getwd()

Change current working directory

setwd("/home/user")