Fix R Error: ‘\U’ used without hex digits in character string starting “”C:\U”

In this post, I’ll explain how to handle the error message ‘U’ used without hex digits in character string starting “”C:U” in Windows in the R programming language.

The tutorial contains two examples for the handling of this error. To be more precise, the content is structured as follows:

Let’s start right away…

Example 1: Reproduce the Error: ‘\U’ used without hex digits in character string starting “”C:\U”

This example shows how to replicate the error message ‘U’ used without hex digits in character string starting “”C:U” when using the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Let’s assume that we want to change our currently used working directory in R by using the setwd function. Then, we might try to copy and paste the path of this working directory as character string into the setwd function:

setwd("C:\Users\Joach\Desktop")    # Trying to set working directory
# Error: '\U' used without hex digits in character string starting ""C:\U"

As you can see, the error message ‘U’ used without hex digits in character string starting “”C:U” war returned to the RStudio console.

What happened and how can we solve this problem?

Example 2: Fix the Error: ‘\U’ used without hex digits in character string starting “”C:\U”

Example 2 explains how to fix the error message ‘U’ used without hex digits in character string starting “”C:U”.

If you are using Microsoft Windows as operating system, you need to replace the backslash in file paths with a normal slash. Compare the following R code with the R code of Example 1:

setwd("C:/Users/Joach/Desktop")    # Exchange backslash with slash

Works perfectly fine!

Video, Further Resources & Summary

Do you need more explanations on the R programming code of this article? Then you may watch the following video of my YouTube channel. I’m explaining the R syntax of this article in the video.

Additionally, you might have a look at the related posts of this homepage:

• Warnings & Errors in R (Overview)
• R Programming Examples

At this point you should have learned how to solve the error ‘U’ used without hex digits in character string starting “”C:U” in the R programming language. In case you have additional questions, let me know in the comments below.