Tutorial on Rdata format?

Question

I have searched google and this site but was unable to find any tutorials on the Rdata format.

Can someone point me to one?

What I would like to know is basically how to use it and what its advantages/disadvantages are.

Can I store any type of data structure in Rdata? Can I save an Rdata file and update it with new entries? etc.

Answer 1

An Rdata file is a binary file, whereas csv files, for example, are text files. Advantages of Rdata format is that it is more compact, faster to read, and can store any type of R data structure. Furthermore, you can store several objects into one Rdata file.

On the other hand, it is a format which is incompatible with other statistical systems or software. So you won't be able to send data in this format to someone who is not using R. Furthermore, it may become incompatible from one R version to another (even if the compatibility is maintained since version 1.4).

You can find more informations in the ?save help page.