Great RStudio Shortcuts

  • October 10, 2022
  • 2 mins read
  • R R-post

There are so many RStudio shortcuts out there but these are my TOP5 that I regularly use 😊

I love them because they usually make your life easier. The first one allows you to add a new R code chunk in your Rmd/Quarto file using Option + Cmd + I on a Mac (or Ctrl + Alt + I). And this is exactly what the GIF shows:

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The next one makes writing a type operator so much simpler! At first, it feels a bit like looking for the keys but once you have it inherited, you probably won’t want to go back 😊 So instead of typing %>% you can now use Cmd + Shift + M on a Mac (or Ctrl + Shift + M)

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Well formatted code can be so beautiful! And there are guidelines for this in R - but it’s also implemented as a shortcut in RStudio 🤩 If you highlight the code you want to format and then hit Cmd + Shift + A (or Ctrl + Shift + A), the magic will happen 🪄

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One short disclaimer: It’s powerful and great but it may (in particular if you write SQL statements or heavily comment your code) also destroy the structure of your code. So use it wisely 🤓

And the next one is for renaming/replacing multiple objects with the same name at once. Highlight one of the variable names (for instance) and hit Option + Cmd + Shift + M (or Alt + Ctrl + Shift + M). You can now start typing and replacing both objects at the same time.

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Since I often work in a package environment, the last shortcut allows me to avoid typing devtools::load_all() by using Cmd + Shift + L (or Ctrl + Shift + L) to reload the package. This is particularly helpful when you are currently debugging a function and want to avoid typing the undebug() call.