Can't convert back slashes to forward slashes [duplicate]

Question

Im studying about data but there is a problem. There is a lot of data that I use to study but everytime I want to load the data with read_csv() I use a lot of time to change \ to /.

My files are locaten like this C:\\Users\\Me\\Desktop\\Data\\hotel_bookings.csv

So I can not do;

x <- "C:\Users\Me\Desktop\Data\hotel_bookings.csv"

Because my folder directory saves as \ not as \\

One of the solitions I found is

hotel <- read_csv(file.choose()) 

The other one is also

path <- "C:\\Users\\Me\\Desktop\\Data\\hotel_bookings.csv"
path <- normalizePath(path)
hotel <- read_csv(path)

but still takes time to insert an extra \.

Need an easier way to get my file location that contains all /

Answer 1

Since R 4.0.0, you can use raw character constants (mentioned on r-devel NEWS):

There is a new syntax for specifying raw character constants similar to the one used in C++: r"(...)" with ... any character sequence not containing the sequence ‘⁠)"⁠’. This makes it easier to write strings that contain backslashes or both single and double quotes.

x <- r"(C:\Users\Me\Desktop\Data\hotel_bookings.csv)"

Answer 2

Use forward-slashes instead.

On macos and linux, R uses forward-slashes only for directory separators. On windows, however, it accepts either, so all of the following will work on windows:

path <- "C:\\Users\\Me\\Desktop\\Data\\hotel_bookings.csv"
path <- "C:/Users/Me/Desktop/Data/hotel_bookings.csv"
# raw-strings, from Robby's answer
path <- r"{C:\Users\Me\Desktop\Data\hotel_bookings.csv}"

Personally I prefer using forward-slashes everywhere, first for cross-platform compatibility (backslashes don't work on non-windows platforms afaict), second because I've been in non-windows more than windows in my career so I'm more comfortable with forward-slashes.

Side note: I tend to agree that most of the time one should avoid absolute paths when working on projects. I'm assuming for this answer that there is (or can be) reason for using a full path. However, this answer is applicable to relative paths as well, such as

relpath <- "data\\hotel_bookings.csv"
relpath <- "data/hotel_bookings.csv"
relpath <- r"{data\hotel_bookings.csv}"

though clearly the number of slashes typed is far fewer.

---

On rereading the question a few more times, I see the utility of Rui's answer that suggests a programmatic way to change the text of what you're pasting. I'll add to that view a slightly different code-snippet that may be useful.

slashes <- function(txt) {
  if (missing(txt)) txt <- clipr::read_clip()
  clipr::write_clip(gsub("\\\\{1,2}", "/", txt))
}
# copy C:\\Users\\Me\\Desktop\\Data\\hotel_bookings.csv to your clipboard
slashes()
# you now have C:/Users/Me/Desktop/Data/hotel_bookings.csv
# in your clipboard, paste whereever

This is slightly different from Rui's in that it will replace single or up-to-double backslashes by a single forward slash.

Answer 3

Though there already is an accepted answer and this one is much closer to the question in user Abdul Aziz's comment, this method to convert backslashes into forward slashes was not posted as an answer to that linked to question.

path <- "C:\\Users\\Me\\Desktop\\Data\\hotel_bookings.csv"

chartr("\\", "/", path)
#> [1] "C:/Users/Me/Desktop/Data/hotel_bookings.csv"

^{Created on 2025-10-10 with reprex v2.1.1}

---

The OP says that they spend

a lot of time to change \ to /.

The solution above is also fast, around twice as fast as gsub.

path <- "C:\\Users\\Me\\Desktop\\Data\\hotel_bookings.csv"

bench::mark(
  chartr = chartr("\\", "/", path),
  gsub = gsub("\\\\", "/", path)
)
#> # A tibble: 2 × 6
#>   expression      min   median `itr/sec` mem_alloc `gc/sec`
#>   <bch:expr> <bch:tm> <bch:tm>     <dbl> <bch:byt>    <dbl>
#> 1 chartr        2.4µs    2.6µs   312210.        0B        0
#> 2 gsub          5.1µs    5.7µs   167013.        0B        0

^{Created on 2025-10-10 with reprex v2.1.1}