Ten Steps to Building an R package under Windows

If you’ve spent any amount of time working in R there comes a point when you want to create your own package in R.  I’ve switched back and forth between running R on my MAC and running it on Windows and I thought I’d give package development on Windows a try.  What I’ll try to do on these pages is document that process step by step for the raw beginner.

First off, I need to thank all the R experts who have help put all the tools and documentation in place. Without them none of this would be possible.

How to Build a Package in Windows

Use the guide below to jump to any section you want. I’ll take you through the entire process as I did it.

Step One:  Update your R and other Tools. We will start by updating our version of R and I’ll update my current version of RStudio. Neither of these steps are difficult and you can just skip this section as you should already be familiar with these types of tasks.

Step  Two: Get to know your Windows System

Step Three:  Decide which kind of package  you want to build

Step Four:  Get the tools

Step Five:   Installing the tools

Step Six:  Fixing your Path

Step Seven: Reboot and do some reading

Step Eight;  The Sample Package

Step Nine: Edit some files

Step Ten: Build

  1. David McKeever
    October 9, 2011 at 1:23 PM | #1

    Very interesting and informative. I was wondering if you think that someone (like me) could download comma separated files (.csv) from a horse racing website that has data from past performances using your build steps. I would be interested in doing things like time series, and econometric techniques applied to horse racing. Any comments appreciated.

  2. steven mosher
    October 9, 2011 at 8:50 PM | #2

    yes, but you dont need to build a package. Just get R and download the file

  3. Oleg M
    December 18, 2011 at 4:37 AM | #3

    This is very helpful. I am making my first steps trying to build C code into my R programs. Most other places (like R documentation on CRAN) skip a lot of these, for example the nature of R CMD. Thank you Steve!

  4. Dinesh
    May 2, 2012 at 3:55 AM | #4

    This is the best ever documentation for creating “R packages using Windows”. Simple and to the point. Thanks Steve. This was very helpful.

    • Steven Mosher
      May 2, 2012 at 3:57 AM | #5

      you are welcomed. Let others know if they have problems

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  1. June 9, 2011 at 12:20 AM | #1
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