ARCHIVED: In R, why do I get an error when specifying a directory path in Windows?

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In Windows, when specifying a directory path in R (e.g., to set the working directory or load a data set), you will get an error if the directory path contains a backslash:

  > setwd("C:\R files")
  > Error: '\R' is an unrecognized escape in character string starting "C:\R"

In R, a single backslash is an escape character, and using it for directory paths will always produce an error. To specify directory paths correctly in R, you have two options:

Use two backslashes instead of a single one:
```
  > setwd("C:\\R files")
```
Use a forward slash:
```
  > setwd("C:/R files")
```

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