How do you change the version of R running in Visual Studio 2017?

Question

I would like to run R version 3.4 instead of the current, 3.3.2, and don't really know where to begin.

Web searches left we with little, perhaps, though, because I am not used to working on the Windows 10 platform and don't fully understand how the components in Visual Studio are layered.

score 10 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 17 '17 at 11:47

RTVS should detect all the versions of R you've got installed on your machine, in which case @pwjvr's answer is correct. You should be able to click on the workspace item in the corner and choose a different version to switch to. A "workspace" is what RTVS calls a specific R installation that can be used to run your code.

In the situation where RTVS doesn't detect R, you can add it manually. Go to the workspace window (R Tools -> Windows -> Workspaces). This should pop up a window like the one below.

Click on Add, and fill in the entries:

Entry name: name you want to give this workspace
Host URL or path: location of the R install, eg C:\Program Files\R\R-3.4.1
R command line arguments: any arguments to pass to the R binary. Generally you can leave this blank.

I just tried adding the newest version of Microsoft R Open 4.0.2 to Visual Studio 2017 that way, as the version I was using (Microsoft R Client 3.5.2.0) seems to not be able to get the most recent versions of some packages, but when I follow your instructions to add it I get the following error: "Connecting to R Workspace failed. Reason: No R interpreters installed." — coip, Feb 12 '21 at 22:28

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 17 '17 at 11:29

8

I hope this answers your questions.

In the bottom right of the VS console there will most likely stand R 3.3.2, if you click on it, a menu will pop up, allowing you to switch between the different versions available on your machine.

You will see in the bottom right, he is running Microsoft R Open 3.3.2, this is where you click to change versions

edited Aug 17 '17 at 11:29

Hong Ooi

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answered Aug 17 '17 at 11:16

pwjvr

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Aha, self-detection, exactly the logic I failed to understand. The updated version was installed, and detected, unproblematically. Kudos! – user1603472 Aug 21 '17 at 07:44
Glad I could help! – pwjvr Aug 23 '17 at 14:40

How do you change the version of R running in Visual Studio 2017?

2 Answers2