Running a script

Problem

You want to run R code from a text file.

Solution

Use the source() function.

  1. # First, go to the proper directory
  2. setwd('/home/username/desktop/rcode')
  4. source('analyze.r')

Note that if you want your script to produce text output, you must use the print() or cat() function.

  1. x <- 1:10
  3. # In a script, this will do nothing
  4. x
  6. # Use the print function:
  7. print(x)
  8. #> [1]  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
  11. # Simpler output: no row/column numbers, no text wrapping
  12. cat(x)
  13. #> 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10

Another alternative is to run source() with the print.eval=TRUE option.