backup_object: Make and load backups of R objects

In taxlist: Handling Taxonomic Lists

Make and load backups of R objects

Description

When work with data becomes risky, the best practice is to produce backup files. The function of backup_object is a wrapper of save(), adding a time stamp and a suffix to the name of the resulting file (an R image file with extension *.rda). The function load_last is adapted to this style, loading the newest version to the session.

Usage

backup_object(
  ...,
  objects = character(),
  file,
  stamp = TRUE,
  overwrite = FALSE
)

load_last(file, fext = ".rda")

Arguments

...	Names of the objects to be saved (either symbols or character strings).
objects	A character vector indicating the names of objects to be included in the backup file.
file	A character value indicating the name of the backup file, without the extension.
stamp	A logical value indicating whether time should be stamped in the backup name or not.
overwrite	A logical value indicating whether existing files must be overwritten or not.
fext	A character value indicating the file extension (including the dot symbol).

Details

In both functions the argument file may include either the path relative to the working directory or the absolute path to the file, excluding stamps and extension. For overwrite=FALSE (the default), a numeric suffix will be added to the backup's name, if another backup was produced at the same day. For overwrite=TRUE no suffix will be included in the file and existing files will be overwritten.

The function load_last() will load the newest version among backups stored in the same folder, provided that the backup name includes a time stamp.

Value

An R image with extension *.rda.

Author(s)

Miguel Alvarez [e-mail]

See Also

save load.

Examples

## A subset with Pseudognaphalium and relatives
Pseudognaphalium <- subset(x = Easplist, subset = grepl("Pseudognaphalium",
        TaxonName), slot = "names", keep_parents = TRUE)

## Create a backup with date stamp in tempdir
backup_object(Pseudognaphalium, file = file.path(tempdir(), "Pseudonaphalium"))

## The same again
backup_object(Pseudognaphalium, file = file.path(tempdir(), "Pseudonaphalium"))

## Delete object
rm(list = "Pseudognaphalium")

## To load the last backup into a session
load_last(file = file.path(tempdir(), "Pseudonaphalium"))

## Load pre-installed backup
load_last(file.path(path.package("taxlist"), "extdata", "Podocarpus"))

taxlist documentation built on March 31, 2023, 5:22 p.m.