R help - Nov 2011 - calling self written R functions

Hi All,

I have written a function (say) called foo, saved in a file called
foo.R. Just going by Matlab syntax I usually just change my folder path and
therefore can call it at will.

When it comes to R, how is the usual way of calling/loading it? because R
doesnt seem to automatically find the function from a folder (which might
be stupid to attempt in the first place).

Thanks,
Sachin

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Hi Sachin,

Nope, R does not work that way.  You do have several options, though.
For a function or two, consider creating/editing a workspace .Rprofile
file.

https://www.google.com/?q=Rprofile

should bring up a fair number of pages describing this, you might look at a few.

If you find yourself getting a little collection of functions, with
some of them possibly depending on each other, and/or wanting to have
documentation for your function(s), it is time to write a package.
There was a nice video tutorial of this at the LA R User Group meeting
not too long ago, you can find it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TER-rQoVs0k
You can also see the official manual on extensions for how to write
packages: http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-exts.html

Cheers!

Josh

On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 5:26 PM, Sachinthaka Abeywardana
<sachin.abeywardana at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have written a function (say) called foo, saved in a file called
> foo.R. Just going by Matlab syntax I usually just change my folder path and
> therefore can call it at will.
>
> When it comes to R, how is the usual way of calling/loading it? because R
> doesnt seem to automatically find the function from a folder (which might
> be stupid to attempt in the first place).
>
> Thanks,
> Sachin
>
> ? ? ? ?[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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.
>


-- 
Joshua Wiley
Ph.D. Student, Health Psychology
Programmer Analyst II, ATS Statistical Consulting Group
University of California, Los Angeles
https://joshuawiley.com/

?source

source("/path/to/foo.R") will load it into R.

Sarah

On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 8:26 PM, Sachinthaka Abeywardana
<sachin.abeywardana at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have written a function (say) called foo, saved in a file called
> foo.R. Just going by Matlab syntax I usually just change my folder path and
> therefore can call it at will.
>
> When it comes to R, how is the usual way of calling/loading it? because R
> doesnt seem to automatically find the function from a folder (which might
> be stupid to attempt in the first place).
>
> Thanks,
> Sachin
>

-- 
Sarah Goslee
http://www.functionaldiversity.org