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Directory Navigation Functions


Some helpful navigation functions in R

Vocabulary

  • directory: folder
  • path: folder/hierarchy/in/which/file/lives
  • file path: folder/hierarchy/FILENAME.CSV
  • absolute path: C:/user/project/subfolder/filename.csv (location relative to root directory on a specific computer)
  • relative path: subfolder/filename.csv (location relative to the current directory)
  • dot: ./subfolder/ means navigate from the current directory (usually works the same as subfolder/ or /subfolder/)
  • double-dot: ../subfolder/ go up one level, then into the subfolder

Path Style

Note that windows OS uses backslashes for paths (they lean backwards):

setwd( "C:\users\username\" )
# > Error in setwd( "C:\users\username\" ) : cannot change working directory

Whereas R uses forward slashes:

setwd( "C:/users/username/" )  # this works

Functions

  • getwd(): get working directory
  • setwd(): change the working directory
  • dir(): print all names of files located in the current directory
  • dir.create( “foldername” ): create a new folder
  • dir.exists( “foldername” ): check if a folder is located in the current directory
  • file.exists( “filename.csv” ): check if a file is located in the current directory
######################################
######################################     CURRENT FOLDER
######################################


getwd()
[1] "C:/Users/lecy/Documents"

dir()   # LIST FILES IN DIRECTORY

# [1] "AWS"                                                       
# [2] "AWS-NCCS-EFILE.csv"  
# [3] "bmf"
# [4] "2023-05-POL-ORGS-SCHED-A.csv"                              
# [5] "2023-05-POL-ORGS-SCHED-B.csv"                              
# [6] "2023-05-POL-ORGS-SCHED-D.csv"


######################################
######################################     BASIC NAVIGATION
######################################


# NOTE THAT FILES HAVE EXTENSIONS

setwd( "AWS-NCCS-EFILE.csv" )     

# > Error in setwd( "AWS-NCCS-EFILE.csv" ) : cannot change working directory

dir.exists( "AWS-NCCS-EFILE.csv" )
[1] FALSE
file.exists( "AWS-NCCS-EFILE.csv" )
[1] TRUE


# FOLDERS DO NOT HAVE EXTENSIONS

dir.exists( "AWS" )     
[1] TRUE
file.exists( "AWS" )
[1] FALSE

setwd( "AWS" )      
getwd()
# [1] "C:/Users/lecy/Documents/AWS"


setwd( ".." )     # RETURN TO PARENT FOLDER
getwd()
# [1] "C:/Users/lecy/Documents"

setwd( "bmf" )

getwd()
# [1] "C:/Users/lecy/Documents/bmf"

dir()
# [1] "BMF-2022-01-501CX-NONPROFIT-PX.csv" "BMF-2022-08-501CX-NONPROFIT-PX.csv"
# [3] "BMF-LABELED-TEMP.rds"               "BMF_TAX_EXEMPT_PURP.csv"           
# [5] "BMF_UNIFIED_V1.1.csv"               "BMF_UNIFIED_V1.2.csv"              

file.exists( "BMF_UNIFIED_V1.1.csv" )
[1] TRUE

file.exists( "WRONG_NAME.csv" )
[1] FALSE


######################################
######################################     CREATE NEW FOLDERS
######################################

dir()
# [1] "BMF-2022-01-501CX-NONPROFIT-PX.csv" "BMF-2022-08-501CX-NONPROFIT-PX.csv"
# [3] "BMF-LABELED-TEMP.rds"               "BMF_TAX_EXEMPT_PURP.csv"           
# [5] "BMF_UNIFIED_V1.1.csv"               "BMF_UNIFIED_V1.2.csv"              


setwd( "TEST" )
# > Error in setwd( "TEST" ) : cannot change working directory

dir.create( "TEST" ) 
dir()

# [1] "BMF-2022-01-501CX-NONPROFIT-PX.csv" "BMF-2022-08-501CX-NONPROFIT-PX.csv"
# [3] "BMF-LABELED-TEMP.rds"               "BMF_TAX_EXEMPT_PURP.csv"           
# [5] "BMF_UNIFIED_V1.1.csv"               "BMF_UNIFIED_V1.2.csv"                           
# [7] "TEST"

setwd( "TEST" )

getwd()
# [1] "C:/Users/lecy/Documents/bmf/TEST"

dir()  # EMPTY FOLDER
# character(0)


######################################
######################################     RELATIVE NAVIGATION 
######################################

getwd()
# [1] "C:/Users/lecy/Documents/bmf/TEST"

setwd( "../.." )  # GO UP TWO LEVELS 
getwd()
# [1] "C:/Users/lecy/Documents"

setwd( "bmf/TEST" )  # GO DOWN TWO LEVELS (FOLDER IN A FOLDER)
getwd()
# [1] "C:/Users/lecy/Documents/bmf/TEST"

Show All Contents

If you ever want an inventory of project files try the fs package.

## PRINT CONTENT MAP
library( fs )
setwd( ".../intro-data-science-TEMPLATE" )
dir_tree( path="units" )

units
+-- 00-foundations
|   +-- handouts
|   |   +-- base-r-cheatsheet.pdf
|   |   +-- data-wrangling-cheatsheet.pdf
|   |   +-- dplyr-cheatsheet.pdf
|   |   \-- rstudio-IDE-cheatsheet.pdf
|   +-- img
|   |   +-- ch-001-image1.jpg
|   |   +-- ch-001-image2.jpg
|   |   \-- ch-001-image3.jpg
|   +-- pubs
|   |   +-- data-science-sexiest-job-21st-century.pdf
|   |   +-- helpful-vocabulary.docx
|   |   +-- r-is-still-hot.pdf
|   |   \-- r-style-guide.docx