Have you ever used setwd("pathtofolder") at the beginning of an R script? Are you pasting folder names and paths into string to read multiple files from your folder? Have you ever wondered if there is a better, more intuitive way?
Wonder no more! There is an amazing package that can help you better organise your R folders and make every dataset and script easier to find. Say hello to the here package!
This package has three main functions:
Set_here() creates an empty .here file in the current working directory which will be used by the here package as the root
Dr_here() - explains why here is set to a particular directory
Here() - uses heuristics to navigate your projects file based on the current working directory
For example, if you have a file in the "Root\FolderLevel1\FolderLevel2\FolderLevel3\" you can use the command
here("FolderLevel1", "FolderLevel2", "FolderLevel3")
to navigate to the right path.
Much more intuitive, less typing, less prone to errors and failures!
If you are using the here package together with R projects, your productivity will certainly increase. Every time I start a new data science project, I create an R project in Rstudio, which automatically sets the working directory to the folder I create the project in.
I then use set_here() to create a .here file in the root directory of my project and then use the here() function to navigate complex folder structures. Reading, writing and finding files has never been easier!