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Create a file path

Source: R/create_file_path.R
create_file_path.Rd

Create a file path, creating the indicated directory if it does not yet exist.

Usage

create_file_path(
  filename,
  format_stamp = "%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M_%S",
  dir = fs::path(".", "output"),
  add_date = TRUE
)

Arguments

filename

character string with the file name, including the file extension like .csv or .txt. Should adhere to the restrictions described in checkinput::is_path().

format_stamp

character string indicating the format of the stamp to be added in front of the file name. No stamp is added if format_stamp is an empty string (i.e., ""). The formatted stamp is treated as part of the filename, such that the same restrictions apply, see Details.

dir

Character string containing a valid path to a directory that should be created if it does not yet exist. fs::path() adds file separators and the dot (".") indicates the working directory, such that by default a subdirectory with the current date in the format YYYY_mm_dd in directory output below the working directory is created.

add_date

TRUE or FALSE: create a subdirectory in dir with the current date in the format YYYY_mm_dd?

Value

The created absolute normalized file path, returned invisibly.

Details

filename should contain a file extension (i.e., a dot followed by any character until the end of the file name) and should not contain slashes or backslashes: use dir to indicate subdirectories.

The absolute normalised path is returned such that the returned path still works if the working directory changes.

A warning is issued if the file indicated by the returned path already exists. To prevent this when creating files in quick succession, use "%OSn" as part of format_stamp to create precise stamps by truncating seconds to 0 <= n <= 6 decimal places, see strftime() for details.

The file is not created by create_file_path(), use fs::file_create(create_file_path(filename = "abc.txt", ...)) or file.create(create_file_path(filename = "abc.txt", ...)) to do so.

Side effects

The directory indicated by the returned path is created if it does not yet exist.

See also

checkinput::is_path() to check if a path is valid, with a Note on paths and extensive references about file paths and directories; get_file_path() to check if a file exists and is a unique match to a pattern; create_dir() (used by this function) to create a directory if it does not yet exist

Other functions to handle paths and directories: create_dir(), create_tempdir(), get_file_path()

Examples

# Use a temporary directory to not write in the user's directory
my_tempdir <- create_tempdir(prefix = "examplecreatefilepath")

(create_file_path(filename = "abc.txt", format_stamp = "",
                  dir = my_tempdir, add_date = TRUE))
#> /tmp/Rtmp31i27G/examplecreatefilepath1a6249978d00/2026_07_02/abc.txt
(create_file_path(filename = "abc.txt", format_stamp = "%d_%m_%Y",
                  dir = my_tempdir, add_date = TRUE))
#> /tmp/Rtmp31i27G/examplecreatefilepath1a6249978d00/2026_07_02/02_07_2026_abc.txt
(create_file_path(filename = "def.html", format_stamp = "",
                  dir = my_tempdir, add_date = FALSE))
#> /tmp/Rtmp31i27G/examplecreatefilepath1a6249978d00/def.html
(create_file_path(filename = "def.html", format_stamp = "%d_%m_%Y",
                  dir = my_tempdir, add_date = FALSE))
#> /tmp/Rtmp31i27G/examplecreatefilepath1a6249978d00/02_07_2026_def.html
(create_file_path(filename = "abc.txt", format_stamp = "",
                  dir = fs::path(my_tempdir, "subdir"), add_date = TRUE))
#> /tmp/Rtmp31i27G/examplecreatefilepath1a6249978d00/subdir/2026_07_02/abc.txt
(create_file_path(filename = "abc.txt", format_stamp = "%d_%m_%Y",
                  dir = fs::path(my_tempdir, "subdir"), add_date = TRUE))
#> /tmp/Rtmp31i27G/examplecreatefilepath1a6249978d00/subdir/2026_07_02/02_07_2026_abc.txt
(create_file_path(filename = "def.html", format_stamp = "",
                  dir = fs::path(my_tempdir, "subdir"), add_date = FALSE))
#> /tmp/Rtmp31i27G/examplecreatefilepath1a6249978d00/subdir/def.html
(create_file_path(filename = "def.html", format_stamp = "%d_%m_%Y",
                  dir = fs::path(my_tempdir, "subdir"), add_date = FALSE))
#> /tmp/Rtmp31i27G/examplecreatefilepath1a6249978d00/subdir/02_07_2026_def.html

# Cleaning up
unlink(x = my_tempdir, recursive = TRUE)
rm(my_tempdir)