Hello R Studio community!
I wanted to share a situation that happened to me yesterday as when I attempted to self help on this topic I was unable to find any relevant occurrences. Hopefully this will help someone in the future!
Relevant Details
- Computer: MacBook Pro 2 Ghz Quad Core Intel Core i5 with 16GB memory on Sequoia 15.1.1
- R Version: 4.4.2
- R Studio Version: 2024.12.0 Build 467
Event Description
I was working with a data set where one of the questions that a survey respondent could answer had nine options in a multiselect (the user could answer one, multiple or all options). The survey platform exported a .SAV file where each response was it's own column: q1_r1, q1_r2, q1_r3 etc etc. Under the column would be a 0 for did not select and a 1 for select.
I replaced each of the ones with a three letter code, and my client wanted to know what were the most commonly selected combinations. For example, what is the n count for R1;R2 vs R2;R3. Since I was using tidyverse to transforms the ones into the relevant responses, I decided to stay in tidyverse and use the "unite()" function to combine the responses together.
I used command+return to run the line and then nothing happened.
Troubleshooting
I selected the code using the mouse and used the "run" command at the top of the markdown window. Nothing happened.
I could execute code in console, but I was unable to execute any code in the R markdown window. I opened a new rmarkdown file and again, the same issue. No highlighted code chunk or line would execute. Nothing would happen in the history window or console.
I opened an R script and put in a = 1, b = 1, c = a + b, print(c) and nothing happened. Copy and pasting to console worked.
I closed the project and opened a new project. Same issue, nothing worked.
At this point I turned to Google and did multiple searches on R not allowing you to execute code or code chunks. I found one stackoverflow link that talked about a similar issue but the presented solution didn't work in MacOS.
I restarted the computer and tried the above steps. Nothing worked.
I uninstalled R and R Studio and re-installed. Reopened the project and nothing happened. I tried the other steps above. Nothing worked.
Solution
What finally managed to make this work was deleting the project itself. Once I deleted the project I was able to open R Studio and run scripts and R markdown files again. I am unsure why this is the case, but it has managed to fix the underlying issue. I have not yet attempted to replicate the problem as I am now behind at work and need to catch up, but I am hoping that this will help someone in the future.
I am aware that I am not an expert on coding or programming. My training and experience is primarily in the social sciences and I used SPSS for most of my career. I switched to R as it "felt" right and my employer at the time (this was many years ago) was not willing to pay for SPSS licenses. I was given the choice between Python and R and was able to make far more progress with R on my projects than I was with Python. As a result, I am sure there might be better methods to have figured out what had happened and fixed it, but I did get R Studio working again and am able to continue working on my projects. If there are better solutions or trouble shooting steps, please share them below!
Thank you for your time!