readRDS fails to read in file in R. Is there an alternative?

Question

I'm trying to read the RDS file I downloaded from here:

https://github.com/jcheng5/googleCharts/tree/master/inst/examples/bubble

However, when I try to load it into RStudio via:

data<- readRDS('/Users/nathanf/shinyCharts/healthexp.rds')

I get the Error: unknown input format.

I've searched and found a possible solution already posted on StackOverflow, but the solutions mentioned in it do not work.

Does not work: readRDS(file) in R

Please note, I'm trying to do this with a freshly installed copy of R (3.2.1) on a Mac running Yosemite.

I've found articles online that say the readRDS function is now defunct. https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/base/html/base-defunct.html

Sooooooo....dearest community, what should I do? Is there another way to read RDS files using a new function?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you, Nathan

Answer 1

I faced exactly the same problem and I can recommend switching from .rds objects into .RData objects. Simply:

save(random_forest1, "random_forest2.RData")

and then

load("random_forest2.RData")

Just for clarity, you will find your object named as random_forest1 after using load function