Create Directory & File Path in R (2 Examples) | file.path() Function

This tutorial illustrates how to concatenate path components using the file.path function in the R programming language.

Table of contents:

Let’s jump right to the examples…

Example 1: Create Directory Path Using file.path() Function

In Example 1, I’ll demonstrate how to create a directory path using the file.path function in R.

For this, we simply have to specify all elements of our path as character strings within the file.path function:

my_directory <- file.path("C:", "Users", "Joach", "Desktop")       # Create directory path
my_directory
# [1] "C:/Users/Joach/Desktop"

As you can see based on the previous output of the RStudio console, we have created a new data object called my_directory, which contains the path to a folder on our computer.

Note that this path was created in a platform-independent way, i.e. the file.path function provides proper operating system (OS) path format detection. The previous code works on Microsoft Windows, as well as on Apple macOS, and Linux.

Example 2: Create File Path Using file.path() Function

We can also use the file.path function to create a path to a specific file in a working directory.

Consider the following R code:

my_file <- file.path("C:", "Users", "Joach", "Desktop", "my_file.csv")  # Create file path
my_file
# [1] "C:/Users/Joach/Desktop/my_file.csv"

As you can see, we have created a new data object called my_file, which contains the path to a particular file.

Video & Further Resources

I have recently released a video on my YouTube channel, which illustrates the R syntax of this article. You can find the video below:

Furthermore, you may read the other tutorials on this homepage.

• Get & Set Directory Path of Installed Packages Using libPaths Function
• Check in R if a Directory Exists and Create if It doesn’t (Programming Example)
• Extract File & Directory Name from Path
• Introduction to System Calls & Commands
• Useful Functions in R (Example Codes)
• R Programming Tutorials

You have learned in this article how to manage path components and construct a path using the file.path function in the R programming language. Let me know in the comments, if you have additional questions.