Common Files in R

Common files in R

This section will briefly cover some of the most common file types exclusive to R

R scripts (.R files)

In most uses of R, we create scripts. Scripts are a collection of code and functions written in the R language that can be interpreted by the R software. We call the process of creating these scripts, coding.

Scripts can achieve any number of goals such as manipulating a data set, conducting a statistical analysis, or visualizing the results of your research. Scripts are kept in R as a .R file.

R Markdown (.Rmd files)

RMarkdown objects are a more powerful extension of scripts that allow you to run segments of code (called chunks) alongside text. RMarkdown files can also be exported into PDF, html, or even word documents. Once exported, they retain all of the text and code while also displaying the results from the chunks.

All of these lessons are actually created using RMarkdown! If you are reading this on the website, you are reading the exported html file from an RMarkdown object.

Here is an example chunk that simply adds 2+2. Remember, chunks are snippets of code that we can run and achieve a simple result. If we run this chunk, we will see the output of 2+2 below the chunk.

2+2

## [1] 4

Of course, future chunks are going to be more complicated than just 2+2. If opening the RMarkdown file directly, you can run each chunk as you wish. Some people prefer to do all of their R coding solely in RMarkdown objects instead of in scripts as they can easily organize their thoughts. How you decide to use R is up to you!

Data files (.RData)

As we will learn, R allows the creation of many different objects. These objects could be data sets, results from analyses, or visualizations related to your study! We can save these objects into data files using the .RData extension. We can save individual or multiple objects into a single file.

This makes file management easier especially if you are conducting your analysis in several steps, have collaborators that need data, or just like to keep your data organized!