Switching R versions in Windows

In order to facilitate reproducible data analysis, researchers should use the same version of a software package to conduct analyses throughout a study. The same holds true when using programming languages like R. Thus, if you maintain several versions of R (i.e 3.6, 4.1) on your computer then you can switch between the versions used. Futher, some packages may only work with an earlier version of R, therefore necessitating switching between versions.


In RStudio, goto "Tools" then "Global Options"

Click "Change" next to the "R version" drop down menu and a window will pop out, allowing you to change the R version.

Switching R versions in Mac


For Mac users, download rswitch to change R version used https://rud.is/rswitch/. Upon running rswitch, an icon on the Mac menu bar appears. Click on this icon to switch versions.