27.2 Naming Files

20201102

Files containing R code use the uppercase .R extension. This aligns with the fact that the language is unambiguously called R and not r.

Preferred

power_analysis.R

Discouraged

power_analysis.r

Some files may contain a single support function. Name the file to match the name of the function defined within the file. If a file contains the support function my_fancy_plot() then name the file as below to differentiate it from analysis scripts.

Preferred

my_fancy_plot.R

Discouraged

utility_functions.R
MyFancyPlot.R
my.fancy.plot.R
my_fancy_plot.r

R binary data filenames end in .RData. This is descriptive of the file containing data for R and conforms to a capitalised naming scheme.

Preferred

weather.RData

Discouraged

weather.rdata
weather.Rdata
weather.rData

Standard file names use lowercase where there is a choice.

Preferred

weather.csv

Discouraged

weather.CSV

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