What is a working directory in R?

What is a working directory in R?

Answered in Getting Started with R and RStudio: https://learnadv.com/courses/getting-started-with-r-and-rstudio/

The working directory is a folder on your computer that R has access to. This folder is where R loads in data, export results, and in general, works out of.

Lets say you make a new folder on your desktop named “example”. To access this folder, all we need is the file path. 

Path to Working Directory
The path tells R how to find this folder. If the folder is on your desktop, it is very likely your path is something similar to “C:\Users\Dillon\Desktop\example” if you’re on Windows

YOUR PATH WILL BE DIFFERENT THAN MINE

Unless the username on your machine is also Dillon, it is likely your path will be different. If you are not tech savvy, it may be confusing to figure out what your path is the first time.

I’ve included a few resources that detail how to find the path for various devices.

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