When you save a variable in an R data file using save
, it is saved under whatever name it had in the session that saved it. When I later go to load it from another session, it is loaded with the same name, which the loading script cannot possibly know. This name could overwrite an existing variable of the same name in the loading session. Is there a way to safely load an object from a data file into a specified variable name without risk of clobbering existing variables?
x = 5
save(x, file="x.Rda")
x = 7
load("x.Rda")
print(x) # This will print 5. Oops.
x = 7
y = load_object_from_file("x.Rda")
print(x) # should print 7
print(y) # should print 5
If you're just saving a single object, don't use an .Rdata
file, use an .RDS
file:
x <- 5
saveRDS(x, "x.rds")
y <- readRDS("x.rds")
all.equal(x, y)