RStudio Shortcuts and Settings

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RStudio is the premier way to write R code. It is very user-friendly as it’s super easy to set up. But it also has a lot of pretty advanced features. In today’s blog post I’ll give you a list of my favorite RStudio tricks and shortcuts. If you want to see detailed explanations, you can check out my video here:

RStudio Theme Setting

  • Use a dark theme for better visibility
  • Enable rainbow parentheses and rainbow indentations to improve code legibility
  • Increase the font size for better readability

RStudio Settings

  • Set up RStudio with the file on the left and the console on the right (as the console is more important than the environment tab for most use cases)
  • Do not save anything into your environment when closing RStudio (Always start with a clean slate to avoid mistakes caused by leftover variables from previous sessions)

Coding Basics

  • Use Ctrl + Shift + M to create a pipe (|>) without typing special characters
  • Use Ctrl + Enter to execute separate lines
  • Use Ctrl + Shift + Enter to execute an entire file
  • Select a specific part of the code and use Ctrl + Enter to execute only the selected portion (useful for debugging pipe chains step by step)
  • Open function documentation with F1
  • Move lines of code with Alt + arrows
  • Indent with Tab and unindent with Shift + Tab
  • Multiple cursors with Alt + click
  • Use Ctrl + 1 and Ctrl + 2 to switch between the console and the current script window (eliminates the need to use the mouse for navigation)

Command Palette and more shortcuts

  • Use Ctrl + Shift + P to execute commands
  • Helpful for using shortcuts that you might have forgotten (like expanding all folds or going to a file)
    • Run all code chunks (Ctrl + Alt + R)
    • Render current document (Ctrl + Shift + K)
    • Restarting R Session (Ctrl + Shift + F10)
    • Styling code with the styler package
    • Running your Golem apps,

Conclusion

Feel free to share your favorite shortcuts, settings, or any other tips I might have missed in the comments below. Have a great day and see you next time. And if you found this helpful, here are some other ways I can help you:

To leave a comment for the author, please follow the link and comment on their blog: Albert Rapp.

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