Customize R Session

The .Rprofile file is used to customize R session every time you start it up. The R profile script (.Rprofile) can be created in the home directory. This script gets executed whenever you start a new R session. One can use it to pre-load libraries, set global options, or define custom functions. In this article, we will discuss how to customize the R sessions.

Want to make R work your way? This guide covers how to customize R session for maximum efficiency and comfort. This post is for Power users looking to automate session setup, the R users who want a more efficient workflow, and Team leads who need consistent R environments across projects. Therefore, the reader of this blog post will learn how to:

✔ Set startup options (default working directory, memory limits)
✔ Customize your .Rprofile for automatic configurations
✔ Manage environment variables for consistent behavior
✔ Personalize RStudio settings (themes, shortcuts, pane layouts)
✔ Automate repetitive tasks with .First() and .Last() functions

What is .Rprofile?

The .Rprofile is an R script that runs automatically at startup, letting the user

• Set default options
• Load frequently used packages
• Define custom functions
• Configure environment variables

Customize an R Session

The R profile script (.Rprofile) file can be used to

1. Change R’s default,
2. Define handy command-line functions,
3. Automatically load your favorite packages

On start-up, R will look for the Rprofile in the following places:

1) R Home Directory: R.home() is used to find the directory path in which R is installed.
2) User’s Home Directory: path.expand("~") is used to find the user’s home directory.
3) R Current Working Directory: getwd() is used to find the R’s current working directory.

# Set default CRAN mirror
options(repos = c(CRAN = "https://cloud.r-project.org"))

# Increase printed output length
options(max.print = 1000)

# Customize error behavior
options(error = recover)
options(warn = 1) # Immediate warnings

# Set default working directory
setwd("~/my_default_project")

Modifying R Default Settings

One can employ a few minor modifications on R default settings. For example, the default prompt is >, and the output printed in the console is seven numbers after the decimals. The following setting will:

1. Replace the default standard R prompt
2. Update (reduce) the number of digits from 7 to 4. Note: It does not reduce the precision with which these numbers are internally processed and stored.
3. The show.signif.stars=FALSE will not show stars to indicate the significance of p-values at the conventional level.

options(prompt = "Imdad> ", digits = 4, show.signif.stars = F)

Edit Profile using usethis Package

• Use the usethis::edit_r_profile() function (from the usethis package) to edit your easily .Rprofile.
• Remember to include sensitive information (like API keys) directly in the script. Consider using a separate
• The .Renviron files for such cases.
• If you have both a project-specific .Rprofile and a user-level one, source the user profile at the beginning of your project’s .Rprofile.

Customizing RStudio

The appearance of RStudion can be customized using Appearance Tweaks available in RStudio.

1. Editor Theme: Tools > Global Options > Appearance
2. Pane Layout: Tools > Global Options > Pane Layout
3. Fonts and Zoom: Tools > Global Options > Appearance

The Keyboard Shortcuts can also be used as a popular customization of RStudio:

# Add to .Rprofile to set shortcuts
options(rstudio.keyboard.shortcuts = list(
  "runCurrentLine" = "Ctrl+Enter",
  "knitDocument" = "Ctrl+Shift+K"
))

RStudio Addins can be used to customize RStudio.

# In R/addins.R
#' @export
helloAddin <- function() {
  message("Hello from your custom addin!")
}

Advanced Session Customization

The .First() and .Last() Functions can be used to customize advanced sessions.

.First <- function() {
  # Runs at startup
  message("Welcome back ", Sys.getenv("USER"), "!")
  if(interactive()) {
    library(tidyverse)
    library(here)
  }
}

.Last <- function() {
  # Runs at session end
  if(interactive()) {
    message("\nGoodbye at ", date(), "\n")
    save.image(".workspace.RData")
  }
}

Summary

In summary, .Rprofile script file allows the user to customize the R environment by setting options, loading libraries, and defining functions that you want available in every session.

Learn about R Workspace, Objects, and .RData File

https://gmstat.com, https://itfeature.com