Tips for Using StatET and Eclipse for Data Analysis in R

My favourite editor for conducting analysis in R is the StatET plug-in for Eclipse. This post discusses an assortment of tips and tricks that I’ve discovered to make this editing environment even better.

Search

• Search (Control + H): I maintain projects in the project explorer. If I need to know how I have used an R function in the past, I search for the function name.

Options for Running R Code

• List Run Options (Control + R)
• Run entire command (Control + R Control + E): Press this key combination on the identifier for a function to run entire function (particularly useful for running nested functions). It’s also useful when you have a line of code that spans multiple lines.
• Run Function Definition (Control + R Control + F): Fun function definition; If you have nested functions, this key combination runs the both outer and inner functions. Thus, don’t use this to refresh the function definition of a nested function.

Coding

• Fix Indentation  (Control + I)
• Delete Line (Control + D)
• Code Folding


• Expand Current: (Control + Num “+”)
• Collapse Current (Control + Num “-“)
• Collapse All (Control + Shift + Num “/”)
  
• Expand All (Control + Num “*”)
• Enable/Disable Code Folding (Control + Num “/”)

• List tips and tricks (Help – Tips And Tricks – Eclipse Platform)
• View all short cut keys (Control + Shift + L):

Outline View

• Highlight Outline (Alt + Shift Q, O)
• Refresh code in a function (right click on function in Outline)
• Cut and paste functions (Use Outline View)

Assorted

• Get file path (Alt W, V, P, P, Enter; Navigate to file; Alt + Enter; Alt + L; Shift + End; Shift + Down; Control + c)
• Go to function definition (Copy function name; Control + Tab to go to function sheet; control + home to go to top of function sheet; control + F to find; control + v to paste; Enter; Esc)
• Activate cursor in console (Control + R, C)
• Activate cursor in editor (F12)
• Toggle maximisation of current window (Control + M)
• Auto completion (Control + /); this does not worke with dot.case.identifiers. Thus, this is another reason to prefer mixedCaseIdentifiers.
• Print current variable (Control + R, P); this is useful when writing functions; I might run an assignment (control + R, control + R) and then print the result. However, it is problematic when there is a lot of data.
• Change variable names (Control + 1)
• Opening Files in Project Editor based on standard file association (Right Click File – Open With – System Editor). Many files will open within StatET. This is sometimes undesirable.