R Working Directory

Get/Set Working Directory in R

In this tutorial, we shall learn how to set R working directory and get the value of R working directory using example R scripts.

R Working Directory is the directory of R workspace. Any files in the R workspace could be referenced in R commands without specifying any relative path. While working with external input files or output files, knowing the R workspace helps in easing the efforts.

Syntax – getwd() – Get Working Directory

The syntax of R function to get working directory is

getwd()

Example 1 – Get Working Directory in R

In this example, we will use getwd() to get current working directory.

r_wd.R

# get location of working directory
wd = getwd()
print (wd)

Output

$ Rscript r_wd.R 
[1] "/home/arjun/workspace/r"

Syntax – setwd() – Set Working Directory

The syntax of R function to set working directory is

setwd(<complete_working_directory_path>)

The change to the working directory is only for scope of current running R Script. Once the current R script file execution is completed, the working directory reverts to default workspace.

Example 2 – Set Working Directory in R

In this example, we will use setwd() to set current working directory to a new path.

r_wd.R

# get location of working directory
wd = getwd()
print (wd)

# set location of working directory
setwd("/home/arjun/")

# verify the working directory
wd = getwd()
cat("\n Working directory changed to : ", wd,"\n")

Output

$ Rscript r_wd.R 
[1] "/home/arjun/workspace/r"

 Working directory changed to :  "/home/arjun"

Conclusion

In this R Tutorial, we have learnt how to set working directory and get the value of working directory using example R scripts.