Video Notes

Data analysis projects often contain many files - the data itself, R scripts to work with the data, graphs and visualizations generated from the data, documentation, etc.

To organize all this content (and make it easily shareable with colleagues or peers), you can take advantage of an RStudio feature called Projects.

RStudio Projects organize your content into a “container” with its own working directory (where your analysis occurs), workspace (where R activity and output are temporarily saved), history, and documents.

When sharing your work, you can simply share the RStudio Project with collaborators, and they’ll have everything they need to work with your analysis and its related components.

Managing RStudio Projects

On the top right of RStudio is the Project dropdown where you can create new Projects as well as open and manage existing Projects:

Here are the steps for creating a new Project:

What happens when you create a new Project?

When you create a new Project in RStudio the following things happen:

1. A New Project Directory is Created (or an Existing One is Used)

• RStudio creates a new folder or lets you choose an existing folder.
• This directory will contain all your R scripts, data files, and other resources.

2. An .Rproj File is Created

• This file stores project-specific settings.
• Double-clicking it opens the project in RStudio.

3. The Working Directory is Set

• RStudio automatically sets the working directory to the project folder.
• This eliminates the need to manually set the working directory using setwd().

4. A Separate Environment is Used

• Any objects, scripts, or plots are kept separate from other projects.
• This avoids conflicts between different analyses.

5. History, Settings, and Open Files are Saved

• RStudio remembers your last open scripts and console history when you reopen the project.

Why Use Projects?

• Keeps files and scripts organized
• Avoids working directory confusion
• Makes work reproducible and portable

Learn more about RStudio Projects in the official RStudio documentation...