write.table to new directory

Question

Is there any way to use write() and write.table() so that the output file is in a different directory than the working directory? It tried setting the path to the output file before the filename, and just get an error message.

Accepted Answer

If you're using windows, `R` will know to go outside the current directory if it sees `C:/` first (presumably other mounted drives too). With Macs it will go outside the current wd if it sees `/`. So:

Mac OS X:

```
write.table(foo, file="/users/name/folder/filename.ext")
```

Windows

```
write.table(foo, file="C:/users/name/folder/filename.ext")
```

Always test to make sure you have the path right first!

```
list.files("C:/...")
list.files("/....")       #Give errors if path doesn't exist as typed
```

So if you're in `/users/parent/subdir` and you want to reference something in `parent`, you must type out the full path - `write.table(foo, "parent/name.ext")` will tell R to make a file: `/users/parent/subdir/parent/name.ext`.

write.table to new directory

Solution

Problem