StatsRhian / dataExample

Example of storing data in an R package

exampleData

Example showing different ways to store data in an R package

R data files

• Have extension .RData or .rda
• Can store multiple R objects
• Object name is defined when the object is created using save()
• Stored in the data/ folder of the package
• Must be documented. This is done in an R script in the R/ folder. See R/data.R for an example
• Automatically exported (e.g. don't type @export) in the documentation
• Users can access with data(diamonds, package = "exampleData")
• Access in functions etc within the package using dataExample::diamonds

Other data files

• Can be .RDS, .csv or other
• RDS files can only store one R object
• Name of object is specified when the object is read in with readRDS()
• Stored in inst/extdata
• Isn't documented
• Accessed via users and functions with the system.file() function. This function only creates the file path. Then have to use appropriate function to read in. E.g. read_csv(system.file("extdata", "mtcars", package = "dataExample") or readRDS(system.file("extdata", "example_data", package = "dataExample")