use the here() function to go up a level above root directory

Question

I would like to have the here function go up a level before starting to go down directory levels.

For example, my project is in the directory '/parent/project_root/', so here() sees this as the default directory. I have some data that I would like to read in that is in 'parent/other_dir/'. What argument do I need to pass to here() to have it first go up to 'parent' then down to other_dir (the equivalent of setwd('../'))? I'd rather not move other_dir into 'project_root' if I don't have to, but if it isn't possible then, I can do it.

Answer 1

library(here)
set_here(path='..')

Gets you into the parent directory

Answer 2

You can simply remove the project directory string from the path:

gsub("project_root/", "", here(other_dir) )

converts "parent/project_root/other_dir/" to "parent/other_dir/"

Or, more elegantly with stringr:

here(other_dir) %>% str_remove("project_root/")

It's a bit of a hack, but it works for the use case, where you want here() to point to the project root but occasionally want to point above with paths that are still universally valid within the project directory.