RStudio IDE :: Cheatsheet

Documents and Apps

Open Shiny, R Markdown, knitr, Sweave, LaTeX, .Rd files and more in Source Pane.

RStudio Source Pane view

Features within the RStudio Source Pane

  • Check spelling
  • Render output
  • Choose output format
  • Configure render options
  • Insert code chunk
  • Publish to server
  • Jump to previous chunk
  • Jump to next chunk
  • Run code
  • Show file outline
  • Visual Editor (reverse side)
  • Jump to section or chunk
  • Run this and all previous code chunks
  • Run this code chunk
  • Set knitr chunk options

Access markdown guide at Help > Markdown Quick Reference.

See below for more on Visual Editor.

Source Editor

RStudio Source Editor view

Features within the Source Editor

  • Navigate backwards/forwards
  • Open in new window
  • Save
  • Find and replace
  • Compile as notebook
  • Run selected code
  • Re-run previous code
  • Source with or without Echo or as a Local Job
  • Show file outline
  • Multiple cursors/column selection with Alt + mouse drag.
  • Code diagnostics that appear in the margin. Hover over diagnostic symbols for details.
  • Syntax highlighting based on your file’s extension
  • Tab completion to finish function names, file paths, arguments, and more.
  • Multi-language code snippets to quickly use common blocks of code.
  • Jump to function in file
  • Change file type
  • Working Directory
  • Run scripts in separate sessions
  • Maximize, minimize panes
  • Ctrl/Cmd + ↑ to see history
  • R Markdown Build Log
  • Drag pane boundaries

Tab Panes

RStudio Tab Panes view

Features within the Tab Panes

  • Import data with wizard
  • History of past commands to run/copy
  • Manage external databases
  • View memory usage
  • R tutorials
  • Load workspace
  • Save workspace
  • Clear R workspace
  • Search inside environment
  • Choose environment to display from list of parent environments
  • Display objects as list or grid
  • Displays saved objects by type with short description
  • View in data viewer
  • View function source code
  • Create folder
  • Path to displayed directory
  • Delete file
  • Rename file
  • More file options
  • Change directory
  • A File browser keyed to your working directory. Click on file or directory name to open.

Version Control

Turn on at Tools > Project Options > Git/SVN

  • A - Added
  • D - Deleted
  • M - Modified
  • R - Renamed
  • ? - Untracked

Version Control view

Features within the version control view

  • Stage files
  • Commit staged files
  • Push/Pull to remote
  • View History
  • Current branch
  • Show file diff to view file differences

Package Development

Create a new package with File > New Project > New Directory > R Package

Enable roxygen documentation with Tools > Project Options > Build Tools

Roxygen guide at Help > Roxygen Quick Reference

See package information in the Build Tab

Package build view

Features within the Build Tab

  • Install package and restart R
  • Run devtools::load_all() and reload changes
  • Run R CMD check
  • Clear output and rebuild
  • Customize package build options
  • Run package tests

RStudio opens plots in a dedicated Plots pane

Plots view

Features within the Plots pane

  • Navigate recent plots
  • Open in window
  • Export plot
  • Delete plot
  • Delete all plots

GUI Package manager lists every installed package

Package manager view

Features within the Package manager

  • Install Packages
  • Update Packages
  • Browse package site
  • Click to load package with library(). Unclick to detach package with detach().
  • Package version installed
  • Delete from library

RStudio opens documentation in a dedicated Help pane

Help pane view

Features within the Help pane

  • Home page of helpful links
  • Search within help file
  • Search for help file

Viewer pane displays HTML content, such as Shiny apps, R Markdown reports, and interactive visualizations

Viewer pane view

Features within the Viewer pane

  • Stop Shiny apps
  • Publish to shinyapps.io, rpubs, Posit Connect, …
  • Refresh

View(<data>) opens spreadsheet like view of data set

Spreadsheet pane view

Features within the data set spreadsheet

  • Filter rows by value or value range
  • Sort by values
  • Search for value

Debug Mode

Use debug(), browser(), or a breakpoint and execute your code to open the debugger mode.

Debug console view

Features within the debug console

  • Launch debugger mode from origin of error
  • Open traceback to examine the functions that R called before the error occurred
  • Click next to line number to add/remove a breakpoint.
  • Highlighted line shows where execution has paused
  • Run commands in environment where execution has paused
  • Examine variables in executing environment
  • Select function in traceback to debug
  • Step through code one line at a time
  • Step into and out of functions to run
  • Resume execution
  • Quit debug mode

Keyboard Shortcuts

View the Keyboard Shortcut Quick Reference with Tools > Keyboard Shortcuts or Alt/Option + Shift + K

Keyboard Shortcut Quick Reference view

Search for keyboard shortcuts with Tools > Show Command Palette or Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P.

Show Command Palette view

Visual Editor

Visual Editor view

Features within the Visual Editor

  • Check spelling
  • Render output
  • Choose output format
  • Choose output location
  • Insert code chunk
  • Jump to previous chunk
  • Jump to next chunk
  • Run selected lines
  • Publish to server
  • Show file outline
  • Block format
  • Back to Source Editor (front page)
  • Insert verbatim code
  • Clear formatting
  • Lists and block quotes
  • Links
  • Citations
  • Images
  • More formatting
  • Insert blocks, citations, equations, and special characters
  • Insert and edit tables
  • File outline
  • Add/Edit attributes
  • Jump to chunk or header
  • Set knitr chunk options
  • Run this and all previous code chunks
  • Run this code chunk

RStudio Workbench

Why RStudio Workbench?

Extend the open source server with a commercial license, support, and more:

  • open and run multiple R sessions at once
  • tune your resources to improve performance
  • administrative tools for managing user sessions
  • collaborate real-time with others in shared projects
  • switch easily from one version of R to a different version
  • integrate with your authentication, authorization, and audit practices
  • work in the RStudio IDE, JupyterLab, Jupyter Notebooks, or VS Code

Download a free 45 day evaluation.

Share Projects

File > New Project

RStudio saves the call history, workspace, and working directory associated with a project. It reloads each when you re-open a project.

Share Project view

Features within the Share Project

  • Start new R Session in current project
  • Close R Session in project
  • Active shared collaborators
  • Name of current project
  • Share Project with Collaborators
  • Select R Version

Run Remote Jobs

Run R on remote clusters (Kubernetes/Slurm) via the Job Launcher

Launcher view

Features within the Job Launcher

  • Launch a job
  • Monitor launcher jobs
  • Run launcher jobs remotely

CC BY SA Posit Software, PBC • info@posit.coposit.co

Learn more at docs.posit.co/ide/user.

Updated: 2023-07.

RStudio IDE 2023.3.0.386.