[R] How do you save in R?

[Peter Flom]

Dieter Menne <dieter.menne at menne-biomed.de> wrote

>Technically a good point, but I found it helpful for starters who want to 
>avoid the inferno of "what's attached now?" not to use it at all.
>My suggestion is to use with() instead because it has a higher locality.
>
>I know, many of the examples use attach.


As a beginner, I find this whole issue very hard to grapple with.  When to use

attach
with
$ syntax
data = 
or
load

I have seen many books and manuals say to just avoid using "attach" at all, but several of these
then go on to use "attach" quite often.  But I run into conceptual problems with all these methods,
particularly when I am trying to operate on subsets of a data frame, and then sometimes need to use the [ and ] syntax, sometimes subset = within a function, and sometimes create a separate data
frame to then use (but here attach can cause tons of problems).

Do other beginners share my confusion?
Can some expert point a path through this confusion?


thanks

Peter

PS As a beginner, I appreciate the time that several posters are now taking to elucidate things
that may seem obvious.  


Peter L. Flom, PhD
Statistical Consultant
www DOT peterflomconsulting DOT com