Interfaces to the Outside World are a way for R to interact with data that is stored outside of the R environment. This can include files, databases, and web services. Connections are objects that represent a link to an external data source. There are a number of different types of connections, each of which is designed to work with a different type of data source.
Some of the most common types of connections include:
- file: This type of connection is used to read data from a file.
- gzfile: This type of connection is used to read data from a file that has been compressed using the gzip algorithm.
- bzfile: This type of connection is used to read data from a file that has been compressed using the bzip2 algorithm.
- url: This type of connection is used to read data from a web page.
Connections can be used to read data from external sources, write data to external sources, and execute commands on external systems. They are a powerful tool that allows R to interact with a wide variety of data sources.
