Question A

Note

This question is about setting up a working environment with RStudio. It was posted at the end of the unit installing_r (readable here). Don’t forget to watch the video at the top of the unit¹.

Learner message

Hi,

I’m trying to install everything on a PC (which is made available from my employer and dedicated to the course). Unfortunately, I’m having trouble already at the stage of installing the first packages. Here is what I get:

> `install.packages("cowsay")`
`Warning in install.packages("cowsay"):`
`lib = "C:/Program Files/R/R-3.5.1/library"' is not writable`
`Error in install.packages("cowsay") : unable to install packages`

I suspect that this is because my company didn’t give me all the rights on this PC (if a folder is not writable)? If so, I will ask our IT division for help.

But I wanted to ask you first. I’m sorry that my computer knowledges are rather low and I’m unable to solve the problem by myself. Many thanks for your help in advance

Response

Hi Learner,

Don’t worry. As with any new software, it is quite common to encounter problems during the first installation, specially if you are on a computer without full admin rights.

Of course you could ask for the administrative rights, but I imagine that an easier alternative is to re-install R and its packages in a directory where you have full reading and writing rights.

1. If you go through this route, I suggest to un-install R by executing C:/Program Files/R/R-3.5.1/unins000.exe. Choose the prompts to erase all files and cache.

2. Proceed to reinstall R with an installer you have downloaded from CRAN.

3. During the installation process, when prompted about the installation directory, choose a folder where you have the writing permissions, for example: C:/Users/<yourusername>/Documents/R/ (where you’d replace <yourusername> by your username in the computer)

4. Once installation finishes, start R and try installing the package again.

Do not hesitate to contact me or book a one-to-one session should you encounter any problems with this method. Good luck!

Cheers,

Daniel

Comments: I don’t know if this response is way too easy. Another option would be adapting the following post

Note

This question is about reshaping tables with packages {tidyr} and {dplyr}. It was posted at the end of the unit reshaping_tibble (that you can find here)².