Chapter 3 Intro to targets

3.1 What is targets?

targets is a package for R that analyzes and manages your workflow or analysis pipeline. It helps to save its users time by re-running outdated analysis steps only when needed. targets is a part of rOpenSci.

targets can also help users build, visualize, and manage workflows from raw files to outputs.

An example of a workflow as visualized by targets

3.2 What are the benefits of targets?

• Reproducibility
• Allows you to automate your workflow
• You don’t need to press run on ten interrelated scripts. Just one
• You don’t need to keep track of which scripts to re-run, or in which order, after you make changes
• Allows you to thoroughly document the plan of your analysis
• Makes it easier to keep track of complex projects
• Can integrate with high performance computing
• It’s R-specific

3.3 Further info:

A good source for info, examples, etc. for targets is Will Landau’s The targets R Package User Manual