[R] loading .rda file

[Leslie Rutkowski]

Thanks, all, for your quick and comprehensive help with this - very much
appreciated in my R journey.

Leslie

On Tue, Aug 30, 2016 at 8:03 PM, Jeff Newmiller <jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us>
wrote:

> Thanks for the perspective, Martin. I personally feel like attaching to
> the search path is more confusing than being explicit, because it appears
> indistinguishable from namespace pollution yet for modifying data it
> creates copies in the current environment (in-place editing requires `<<-`
> which requires keeping your search path in mind as you work to know when to
> use it).
> --
> Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.
>
> On August 30, 2016 10:12:32 AM PDT, Martin Maechler <
> maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
> >>>>>> Jeff Newmiller <jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us>
> >>>>>>     on Tue, 30 Aug 2016 09:36:05 -0700 writes:
> >
> >> You cannot. However, you can load the file into a dedicated
> >environment to keep those names separated from your global environment.
> >e.g. [1]
> >
> >yes, that's my "famous"  only-allowed use of  attach() :
> >attach() an rda-file to your search patch instead of polluting
> >your globalenv.
> >
> >  > The saveRDS / loadRDS
> >
> >        saveRDS / readRDS   are the correct names
> >
> >> functions are an alternative handle one object at a time without
> >dragging the object names into the picture (you have to name the
> >re-loaded object).
> >
> >The fact that it is readRDS() and not loadRDS(),
> >actually does convey via it is often "much better" in the sense
> >of functional / transparent programming to use this pair in
> >favor of save() / load() :
> >readRDS() does *return* what we are interested in, and
> >
> >   result <- readRDS(<file>)
> >
> >is so much better than   load(<file>)   silently overwriting all
> >kinds of objects in my globalenv.
> >
> >Indeed, I strongly advocate to use  saveRDS() and readRDS()
> >much more frequently than they are used nowawadays.
> >
> >
> >
> >> However, the best approach is to write scripts that pull directly
> >from your source (non-R) data files. This makes your work process
> >reproducible as you develop it.
> >
> >Yes, but that's sometimes too inefficient.
> >
> >And then, some of us do simulations and other expensive
> >computations, we need/want to save and re-read.
> >
> >and yes,  I *always*  use the equivalent of   q("no")  to leave R;
> >never save the workspace or load it at startup, unless
> >accidentally on non-standard (for me) platforms.
> >
> >Martin
> >
> >    > [1] https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2016-August/441078.html
> >    > --
> >    > Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.
> >
> >> On August 30, 2016 7:37:24 AM PDT, Leslie Rutkowski
> ><leslie.rutkowski at gmail.com> wrote:
> >    >> Hi,
> >    >>
> >>> I'm slowly migrating from SAS to R and - for the very first time -
> >I'm
> >>> working with a native .Rda data file (rather than importing data
> >from
> >    >> other
> >>> sources). When I load this .Rda file into the global environment
> >using
> >>> load("file path") I see a data.frame in the global environment
> >called
> >    >> "mydata" that corresponds to the .rda file.
> >    >>
> >>> My question: how can I change the name of this data.frame to
> >something
> >    >> of
> >    >> my choosing?
> >    >>
> >    >> Thanks for considering this very simple question.
> >    >>
> >    >> Leslie
> >    >>
> >    >> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >    >>
> >    >> ______________________________________________
> >   >> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> >    >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> >    >> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> >    >> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> >  >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> >
> >    > ______________________________________________
> >    > R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> >    > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> >> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> >http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> >   > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
>

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