[R] conversion from RData to R file

[(Ted Harding)]

On 21-Nov-05 Berton Gunter wrote:
> Please read the docs! -- especially "An Introduction to R."
> There is no need whatever to have your **data** in text format
> (other than, perhaps, to read into into R), which is generally
> what "R format" (a .R suffix in the filename, I presume) indicates.

I would qualify this (very slightly).

One of the good reasons for having data in a text file is that
it is easy to edit it, along with the fact that a frequent
format for "primary" data is textual -- e.g. CSV.

In my experience, one can often encounter errors in data that
need correction quite some time after they have first been
used in R. (I'm talking mainly about non-obvious errors:
plausible values that are in fact wrong, missing values in
the wrong place or extra ones introduced, etc.)

Once one has saved out data as R-data, there is a psychological
prejudice that they don't need looking at again (this is one
of those psycho-logical "inferences", which "follows" from
the practical fact that data in R-Data format are "for" just
loading).

Just a thought ...
Ted.


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Date: 21-Nov-05                                       Time: 18:14:28
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