What is a detach function in R

Recipe Objective

If we want to unload or detach a package from the Rsearch path, we use detach function in R. It is an in-built function in R which also removes the R-objects (such as data.frame) available in the search path after using the attach function. ​

This recipe demonstartes how to use detach function ​

Step 1: loading required library and a dataset

Observations: 200
Variables: 5
$ CustomerID              1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 1...
$ Gender                  Male, Male, Female, Female, Female, Female, ...
$ Age                     19, 21, 20, 23, 31, 22, 35, 23, 64, 30, 67, ...
$ Annual.Income..k..      15, 15, 16, 16, 17, 17, 18, 18, 19, 19, 19, ...
$ Spending.Score..1.100.  39, 81, 6, 77, 40, 76, 6, 94, 3, 72, 14, 99,...

Step 2: Detaching a dataframe

We first attach a dataframe and then use detach function to show it's application ​

Syntax: detach(x) ​

where: x = Dataframe or matrix ​

Male Male Female Female Female Female Female Female Male Female Male Female Female Female Male Male Female Male Male Female Male Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Female Male Female Male Male Female Female Female Female Female Female Female Male Male Female Female Female Female Female Female Female Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Male Male Female Female Male Male Female Female Male Female Male Female Female Female Male Male Female Male Female Female Male Male Male Female Female Male Female Female Female Female Female Male Male Female Female Male Female Female Male Male Female Female Male Male Male Female Female Male Male Male Male Female Female Male Female Female Female Female Female Female Male Female Female Male Female Female Male Male Male Male Male Male Female Female Male Female Female Male Male Female Female Male Female Female Male Male Male Female Female Male Male Male Female Female Female Female Male Female Male Female Female Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Female Male Male Male Male Male Female Female Male Male Male Male Female Female Male Female Female Male Female Male Female Female Female Female Male Female Female Female Female Male Male Male
 Levels:
'Female' 'Male'

Error in eval(expr, envir, enclos): object 'Gender' not found
Traceback:

Note: we cannot work with the variable name as before after using detach function ​

Step 3: Unloading a Package

Error: 'glimpse' is not an exported object from 'namespace:tidyverse'
Traceback:

1. tidyverse::glimpse
2. getExportedValue(pkg, name)
3. stop(gettextf("'%s' is not an exported object from 'namespace:%s'", 
 .     name, getNamespaceName(ns)), call. = FALSE, domain = NA)

Note: we cannot access any functions from the tidyverse package after detaching it ​