README

Instructions to run the analysis

This README file provides the instructions to reproduce the analysis in your local environment.

Environment

The analysis' R code was developed and tested in the following runtime environment:

Component	Version
Operating System	Windows 7 Enterprise, Service Pack 1
R	R version 3.1.2 (2014-10-31) -- "Pumpkin Helmet", x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
R Studio	Version 0.98.1091
R package data.table	1.9.4
R package dplyr	0.4.1

The R code was successfully tested in both R Studio and the R Console.

Raw Data

1. Download the raw data from here.
2. Unzip the downloaded file to any directory of your choice. Your selected directory is referred to as the raw data installation directory, or simply the data directory in the instructions that follow.

R Console Setup

You can safely skip this section if you wil be running the analysis from R Studio.

If you will be running the analysis in the R Console, configure R Console as follows:

1. '--internet2' option

To allow sourcing of an R file from an HTTPS URL, such as a GitHub URL, the R Console must be run with the '--internet2' command-line option.

For Windows users, one way to do this is to create a new shortcut on the Desktop and add the '--internet2' option at the end of the Target as shown below using the author's configuration as an example:

Target: "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.1.2\bin\x64\Rgui.exe" --internet2

2. Buffered Output

To watch the analysis' progress messages during the execution, turn off the output buffering in Misc/Buffered Output.

Analysis Execution Instructions

From R Studio or the R Console:

1. Source the analysis' R code that will process the raw data.

source('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/brigaldies/GettingAndCleaningData/master/run_analysis.R')

2. Run the analysis by executing the run_analysis R function as shown below.

# The author's data directory below is for illustration only.
data_directory <- 'C:\\training\\coursera\\datascience\\GettingAndCleaningData\\project\\UCI HAR Dataset'
run_analysis(
   directory = data_directory,
   destinationFile = './analysis.txt')

The function's arguments are explained below:

1. The first argument, directory =, is the data directory where you unzipped the raw data.
2. The second argument, destinationFile = , is the file the analysis writes the results to.
3. The function supports the following additional and optional arguments:
   1. debug = TRUE (or FALSE, by default), to set the debug mode. In debug mode, the function executes the View function on the different intermediate data structures.
   2. Any of the optional arguments in write.table that configures the output, for example, sep = "," to set the separator to the comma, or quote = FALSE to not have the double quotes around strings.