Setwd in R with double backslashes \\

Question

Quick one - I am a beginner in R Studio so trust asking a silly question .

What is the difference between the two code of setwd as not sure ? or is their any difference at all ?

> setwd("C:/Users/RAMIT PAUL/Downloads/Rate Cat")
> setwd("C:\\Users\\RAMIT PAUL\\Downloads\\Rate Cat")

Yes the latter will fail. You need to use the first or use double backslashes — Hugh, Nov 22 '17 at 08:15
@Firebug If you look at the markdown of the first revision the double backslashes were there already then, but the markdown interpreted them as an escaped single backslashes. Besides the title explicitly said "Setwd in "R" with \". So to me it looks like they mean double backslashes. — Donald Duck, May 10 '22 at 20:04

Firebug · Answer 1 · 2022-05-10T12:16:29.873

0

Any number of forward slashes will work (this is an OS thing). So the both the following will work:

setwd("C:/Users/RAMIT PAUL/Downloads/Rate Cat")
setwd("C://////////Users///////////RAMIT PAUL///////////Downloads///////////Rate Cat")

Now, backslashes are imbued with special meaning. They are used for escape sequences. So you have to escape the slash itself so it's correctly parsed. Hence, this won't work:

setwd("C:\Users\RAMIT PAUL\Downloads\Rate Cat")

While these work:

setwd("C:\\Users\\RAMIT PAUL\\Downloads\\Rate Cat")
setwd("C:\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Users\\RAMIT PAUL\\Downloads\\Rate Cat")

In R 4.0.0 you can actually use (thanks Mossa):

setwd(r"(C:\Users\RAMIT PAUL\Downloads\Rate Cat)")

edited May 10 '22 at 12:16

answered Feb 18 '18 at 17:12

Firebug

472

@user817995 You're welcome :). Please consider accepting my answer (clicking the green check mark below the score arrows) if it thoroughly answered all your inquiries. – Firebug Feb 19 '18 at 12:56
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Also add the setwd(r"(C:\Users\RAMIT PAUL\Downloads\Rate Cat)") that was introduced in R 4.0. See this – Mossa May 10 '22 at 12:02
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Cool, thanks for the tip @Mossa! I haven't kept up with new R changes, that is nice to have – Firebug May 10 '22 at 12:14

Setwd in R with double backslashes \\

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