Christopher R. Dobronyi, U of T

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HOW TO USE R IN SUBLIME TEXT ON MAC

This page provides a brief guide to using R in Sublime Text on Mac. This guide covers setup, use, and customization. R is a programming language and system for statistical computing. Sublime Text is a smart text editor.

SETUP

You need three tools to use R in Sublime Text: R, Terminus, and SendCode. Terminus is a package that allows for you to open a terminal in Sublime Text. SendCode is a package that makes it easy to send R code to the terminal.

  1. Install R
  2. Install Sublime Text and Package Control
  3. Open Sublime Text
    1. Install Terminus:
      1. Press Command + Shift + P
      2. Search "Package Control: Install Package"
      3. Press Enter
      4. Search "Terminus"
      5. Press Enter
    2. Install SendCode:
      1. Press Command + Shift + P
      2. Search "Package Control: Install Package"
      3. Press Enter
      4. Search "SendCode"
      5. Press Enter
  4. Install a theme if desired
  5. Done

USE

To use R in Sublime Text, you need to create a file, set the syntax to R, and build. You can make Sublime Text your default editor for R code after creating your first file.

  1. Use R:
    1. Open Sublime Text
    2. Press Command + N
    3. Press Command + Shift + P
    4. Search "Set Syntax: R Extended"
    5. Press Enter
    6. Write your R code
    7. Open terminal in Sublime Text:
      1. Press Command + Shift + P
      2. Search "Terminus: Open Default Shell in Panel"
      3. Press Enter
    8. Open R in terminal:
      1. Select the panel that opened in Step G
      2. Type "R"
      3. Press Enter
    9. Build:
      1. Select the script that you wrote in Step F
      2. Send source file with Command + B
      3. Send selected code with Command + Enter
  2. Make Sublime Text your default editor:
    1. Save R code
    2. Find the .R file on your Mac
    3. Hold Control and select the .R file
    4. Select "Get info"
    5. Select "Sublime Text" from the "Open with" menu
    6. Select "Change all"
    7. Close window

SNIPPETS

Sublime Text can be customized with snippets. A snippet is a block of code that can be pasted by entering a predefined combination of keys. Snippets make writing R code faster. The following steps will create and use a snippet called "seed" containing "set.seed(12)":

  1. Create snippet:
    1. Open Sublime Text
    2. Select "Tools" from the menu
    3. Select "Developer"
    4. Select "New Snippet"
    5. Replace the existing text with the following: <snippet><content><![CDATA[set.seed(12)]]></content><tabTrigger> seed</tabTrigger><scope>source.r</scope></snippet>
    6. Save as "seed.sublime-snippet"
  2. Use snippet:
    1. Open R code
    2. Type "seed"
    3. Press Tab