R: Save all data.frames in workspace to separate .RData files

Question

I have several data.frames in an environment which I would like to save into separate .RData files. Is there a function which is able to save to whole workspace?

I usually just do this with the following function:

save(x, file = "xy.RData")

but is there a way I could save all the data.frames separately at once?

Answer 1

Creating a bunch of different files isn't how save() is vectorized. Probably better to use a loop here. First, get a vector of all of your data.frame names.

dfs<-Filter(function(x) is.data.frame(get(x)) , ls())

Now write each to a file.

for(d in dfs) {
    save(list=d, file=paste0(d, ".RData"))
}

Or if you just wanted them all in one file

save(list=dfs, file="alldfs.RData")

Answer 2

To save your workspace you just need to do:

save.image("willcontainworkspace.RData")

This creates a single file that contains the entire workspace which may or may not be what you want but your question wasn't completely clear to me.