Helpers, I am a pretty savvy computer user (over 40 years) but am having trouble with the most basic process in using the R program. I am taking a course to learn the statistics utility of ?R? but can?t seem to get past the opening where it shows the student how to input data into R. It suggests identifying as the a target folder in the Properties of the R x64 3.2.3 icon (I use a 64-bit Windows 7 OS) the location where data files are found. I entered: As the Target: "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.3\bin\x64\Rgui.exe" ... which contains Rgui.exe and the supporting dlls etc. As the Start in: "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.3\Appendix" ... where Appendix is a folder which contains data files such as the text file DATA1.txt which I created from an Excel file. When I try and get R to input the data, I get the following sequence of messages:> X=scan("DATA1.txt")Error in file(file, "r") : cannot open the connection In addition: Warning message: In file(file, "r") : cannot open file 'DATA1.txt': No such file or directory When I try again but use the complete file description, I get: X=scan("C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.3\Appendix\DATA1.txt") Error: '\P' is an unrecognized escape in character string starting ""C:\P" I hate to ask a question not related to R or its features (that may come later), but, clearly, the first baby step is to be able to load data into the application . . . and, I am really frustrated with my inability to do so. Can you help? Walt Walter R. Niessen (978) 470-4622 [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
I added an informative subject line; that's a good idea in this list so people can choose whether to read your question or not. On 07/02/2016 3:18 PM, Walter Niessen wrote:> Helpers, > > I am a pretty savvy computer user (over 40 years) but am having trouble with the most basic process in using the R program. I am taking a course to learn the statistics utility of ?R? but can?t seem to get past the opening where it shows the student how to input data into R. > > It suggests identifying as the a target folder in the Properties of the R x64 3.2.3 icon (I use a 64-bit Windows 7 OS) the location where data files are found. I entered: > > As the Target: "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.3\bin\x64\Rgui.exe" ... which contains Rgui.exe and the supporting dlls etc. > > As the Start in: "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.3\Appendix" ... where Appendix is a folder which contains data files such as the text file DATA1.txt which I created from an Excel file. > > When I try and get R to input the data, I get the following sequence of messages: > > >> X=scan("DATA1.txt") > Error in file(file, "r") : cannot open the connection > In addition: Warning message: > In file(file, "r") : > cannot open file 'DATA1.txt': No such file or directory > > When I try again but use the complete file description, I get: > > X=scan("C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.3\Appendix\DATA1.txt") > Error: '\P' is an unrecognized escape in character string starting ""C:\P" > > I hate to ask a question not related to R or its features (that may come later), but, clearly, the first baby step is to be able to load data into the application . . . and, I am really frustrated with my inability to do so.There are a few things you should know. 1. R uses the \ character as an escape, so \t is a tab, etc. If you really want a \ in a string, you need to escape it, i.e. enter \\. This is a pain, so you can instead use / in place of \\ when specifying file paths. 2. I think your course is giving bad advice. Don't mess with the shortcut. Use RStudio as your front end. It allows you to set up "projects"; it remembers the current directory for each project, so you just "Open project" X, and R will be started in the directory of X. 3. If you don't want to use RStudio, then run choose.dir() in R at the start of your session. It lets you set the current directory to the one with your files in it, using a old-fashioned Windows dialog box. If things stop working the way you expect, run getwd() to get R to print what's the current directory. 4. You can also use file.choose() to use Windows dialogs to pick a file; then it doesn't really matter what the current directory is. I hope some of this helps. Duncan Murdoch
Hi Walter,
To make sure that the current R working directory is what you think it is:
getwd()
If it is not what you want, you can change it with:
setwd("C:/Program Files/R/R-3.2.3/Appendix")
Notice that I have changed the backslashes (\) to slashes (/). You can also
use doubled backslashes if you prefer. Same for loading a file with an
explicit path in another directory.
Jim
On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 7:18 AM, Walter Niessen <niessen at att.net> wrote:
> Helpers,
>
> I am a pretty savvy computer user (over 40 years) but am having trouble
> with the most basic process in using the R program. I am taking a course
> to learn the statistics utility of ?R? but can?t seem to get past the
> opening where it shows the student how to input data into R.
>
> It suggests identifying as the a target folder in the Properties of the R
> x64 3.2.3 icon (I use a 64-bit Windows 7 OS) the location where data files
> are found. I entered:
>
> As the Target: "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.3\bin\x64\Rgui.exe"
... which
> contains Rgui.exe and the supporting dlls etc.
>
> As the Start in: "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.3\Appendix" ... where
Appendix
> is a folder which contains data files such as the text file DATA1.txt which
> I created from an Excel file.
>
> When I try and get R to input the data, I get the following sequence of
> messages:
>
>
> > X=scan("DATA1.txt")
> Error in file(file, "r") : cannot open the connection
> In addition: Warning message:
> In file(file, "r") :
> cannot open file 'DATA1.txt': No such file or directory
>
> When I try again but use the complete file description, I get:
>
> X=scan("C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.3\Appendix\DATA1.txt")
> Error: '\P' is an unrecognized escape in character string starting
""C:\P"
>
> I hate to ask a question not related to R or its features (that may come
> later), but, clearly, the first baby step is to be able to load data into
> the application . . . and, I am really frustrated with my inability to do
> so.
>
> Can you help?
>
> Walt
>
> Walter R. Niessen
> (978) 470-4622
>
>
>
> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
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