Save and Load RData Workspace

In this post, we will learn about Save and Load RData Workspace

Question: Can I save my work in R Language?
Answer: R language facilitates saving one’s R work.

Question: How to save work done in R?
Answer: All of the objects and functions that are created (your R workspace) can be saved in a file .RData by using the save() function or the save.image() function. It is important that when saving R work in a file, remember to include the .RData extension.

> save(file = "d:/filename.RData")
> save.image("d:/filename.RData")

Question: Is there an alternative to save workspace in R?
Answer: Yes! You can also save the workspace using the file menu. For this, click the File menu and then click Save Workspace. You will see the dialog box, browse to the folder where you want to save the file, and provide the file name of your own choice.

Question: How one can access the saved work, while work is saved using save.image() function?
Answer: The load() function can be used to load a .RData file.

> load ("d:/filename.RData")

Question: Is there any other alternative to load the workspace in R?
Answer: The .RData files can be accessed through the file menu. To access the file click File and then load workspace. A dialog box will appear, browse to the folder where you saved the .RData file and click open.

Save and Load RData Workspace

Question: How do one can save all the commands that are used in an R session?
Answer: Saving R commands used in an R session means you want to save the history of your R session in an .Rhistory file by using the history() function. It is important to include the .Rhistory extension when saving the file at a different path.

> history("d:/filename.Rhistory")

Question: Can commands in the R session be saved through the File menu?
Answer: Yes command in the R session be saved through the file menu. For this click File and then save history. A dialog box will appear, browse to the folder where you want to save the file (that will contain R commands in a session) and provide the file name of your own choice.

Online MCQs Test preparation website with Answers

FAQs about R

The post is R Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

Question: Why R language is named R?
Answer: The name of the R language is based on the first letters of its authors (Robert Gentleman and Ross Ihaka).

Question: What is the R Foundation?
Answer: The R Foundation is a non-profit organization working in the public interest, founded by the members of the R Core Team. This foundation provides support for the R project and other innovations in statistical computing and provides a reference point for individuals, institutions, or commercial enterprises who want to support or interact with the R development community. R foundation also holds and administers the copyright of R language software and its documentation. For more information about R Foundation follow the link https://www.R-project.org/foundation

Question: What is R-Forge?
Answer: R-Forge provides a central platform for the development of R packages, R-related software, etc. It is based on GForge and offers easy access to the best in SVN, daily built and checked R packages, mailing lists, bug tracking, message board or forum, website hosting, permanent file archival, full backups, and total web-based administration. For more information see

  • The R-Forge web page
  • Stefan Theußl and Achim Zeileis (2009), “Collaborative software development using R-Forge”, The R Journal, 1(1), 9-14.

Question: What mailing lists exist for R language?
Answer: There are four mailing lists devoted to R language

  • R-announce: A moderated mailing list for major announcements about the R development and the availability of new R code.
  • R-packages: A moderated mailing list for an announcement on the availability of new or further enhanced contributed packages.
  • R-help: The main R mailing list for discussion and problems and solutions using R, announcements about the development of R, and the availability of new R code. R-help is intended for people who want to use R to solve problems.
  • R-devel: A mailing list for questions and discussions about code development in R language.

Question: What documentation exists for R language?
Answer: For most of the R functions and variables in R online documentation exists and this documentation can be printed on screen by typing help(name) or ?name at the R prompt, where the name is the name of the topic for which help is required. The R documentation can also be made available in PDF and HTML formats and as a hard copy via LaTeX. The up-to-date HTML version of R documentation is always available for web browsers at http://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual.Lot of R books and manuals are also available as R documentation.

How to get help in R follow the link Getting Help in R Language.

R Basics

Here are R FAQS about R Basics. Questions and answers will be updated frequently and on the demand of visitors.

Question: On what Operating Systems R Language can Run.
Answer: R Language can run on Unix, Linux, and Windows Operating System.

Question: On what machine R can Run?
Answer: R is developed for Unix-like, Windows and Mac families of operating systems. The current version of R Language is configured to run on machine such as CPU-Linux-gnu for i386, amd64, alpha, arm/armel, hppa, ia64, m68k, mips/mipsel, PowerPC, s390 and Sparc CPUs, i386-hurd-gnu, cpu-kfreebsd-gnu for i386 and amd64, PowerPC-apple-darwin, mips-sgi-irix, i386-freebsd, rs6000-ibm-aix and sparc-sun-Solaris.

Question: What is the current version of R?
Answer: The current released version (at the time of this post) of R is 3.2.2. The current version is 3.6.1 (Action of the Toes) released on 2019-07-05.

Question: How and where from R can be obtained?
Answer: Sources, binaries, and documentation of R language can be obtained via the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN).

Question: How to install R on Windows Operating System?
Answer: The “bin/windows” directory of CRAN site contains binaries for a base distribution and add-on packages from CRAN to run on Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, etc (32-bit or 64bit versions of Windows) on ix86 and x86_64 chips.

Question: What is CRAN?
Answer: The CRAN is “Comprehensive R Archive Network”. CRAN is a collection of sites which carry identical material, consisting R distribution(s), the contributed extensions, documentation for R and binaries.

The CRAN master site is https://CRAN.R-project.org at WU (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) in Austria.

Following are some mirrors from CRAN:
https://cran.wu.ac.at/    (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Austria)
https://cran.ms.unimelb.edu.au/    (University of Melbourne, Australia)
https://cran-r.c3sl.ufpr.br/    (Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil)
https://stat.ethz.ch/CRAN/    (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
https://mirrors.dotsrc.org/cran/    (dotsrc.org, Aalborg, Denmark)
https://cran.rediris.es/    (Spanish National Research Network, Madrid, Spain)
http://cran.dcc.fc.up.pt/    (Universidade do Porto, Portugal)
https://www.stats.bris.ac.uk/R/    (University of Bristol, United Kingdom)

For further R Basics Questions following the R FAQ link: Hornik, K., (2015). R FAQs, https://CRAN.R-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html.

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