data                  package:base                  R Documentation

_D_a_t_a _S_e_t_s

_D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n:

     `data' loads a data set or lists (via `show.data') the available
     data sets.

_U_s_a_g_e:

     data(..., list = character(0), package = .packages(),
          lib.loc = .lib.loc)
     show.data(package = .packages(), lib.loc = .lib.loc)

_A_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s:

     ...: a sequence of `name's or character strings

    list: a character vector

 package: a name or character vector giving the packages to look into
          for data sets.  By default, all packages in the search path
          are used.

 lib.loc: a character vector of directory names of R libraries. 
          Defaults to all libraries currently known.

_D_e_t_a_i_l_s:

     Currently, four formats of data files are supported:

        1.  files ending `.RData' or `.rda' are `load()'ed.

        2.  files ending `.R' or `.r' are `source()'d in, with the R
           working directory changed temporarily to the directory
           containing the respective file.

        3.  files ending `.tab' or `.txt' are read using
           `read.table(..., header = TRUE)', and hence result in a data
           frame.

        4.  files ending `.csv' are read using `read.table(..., header
           = TRUE, sep = ";")', and also result in a data frame.

     The data sets to be loaded can be specified as a sequence of
     `name's or character strings, or as the character vector `list',
     or as both.  If no data sets are specified or `show.data' is
     called directly, the available data sets are displayed.

     If no data sets are specified, `data' calls `show.data'.
     `show.data' looks for a file `00Index' in a `data' directory of
     each specified package, and uses these files to prepare a listing.
     If there is a `data' area but no index a warning is given: such
     packages are incomplete.

     If `lib.loc' is not specified, the packages are searched for
     amongst those already loaded, followed by the `data' directory (if
     any) of the currrent working directory. If `lib.loc' is specified,
     they are searched for in the specified libraries, even if they are
     already loaded from another library.

     To just look in the `data' directory of the current working
     directory, set `package = NULL'.

_V_a_l_u_e:

     `data()' returns a character vector of all data sets specified, an
     empty character vector if none were specified.

_N_o_t_e:

     The data files can be many small files. On some file systems it is
     desirable to save space, and the text files in the `help'
     directory of an installed package can be zipped up as a zip
     archive `Rdata.zip'. You will need to proved a single-column file
     `filelist' of file names.

_S_e_e _A_l_s_o:

     `help' for obtaining documentation on data sets.

_E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s:

     data()                       # list all available data sets
     data(package = base)         # list the data sets in the base package
     data(USArrests, "VADeaths")  # load the data sets `USArrests and `VADeaths'
     help(USArrests)              # give information on data set `USArrests'

