Set Working Directory in R

How to Set Working Directory in R

If you want to read files from a specific location or write files to a specific location you will need to set working directory in R. The following example shows how to set the working directory in R to the folder “Data” within the folder “Documents and Settings” on the C drive.

# Set the working directory
setwd("C:/Documents and Settings/Data")

Remember that you must use the forward slash / or double backslash \\ in R! The Windows format of single backslash will not work.

Here’s the official R-manual page on setting the working directory: http://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/base/html/getwd.html.

Practice

To learn more about the working directory in R, try the exercises in this introduction to R.

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JM

3 thoughts on “Set Working Directory in R

  1. Gautam Saripalli

    When I try to set the working directory in excel using the command setwd(“C:\\myGAPIT”), i get an error “Cannot change working directory”. Please suggest what should I do?
    Regards,
    Gautam.

    Reply
    1. Justin@RProgramming.net Post author

      Your code looks right. Are you sure that the folder “myGAPIT” exists in C:?

      Reply
  2. Gautam Saripalli

    When I try to set the working directory in R using the command setwd(“C:\\myGAPIT”), i get an error “Cannot change working directory”. Please suggest what should I do?
    Regards,
    Gautam.

    Reply

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