RStudio - some non-standard special characters in the R Script change by themselves

Question

I occasionally work with data frames where unorthodox special characters are used that look identical to standard characters in RStudio's in-built viewing functionality. I refer to these characters in my scripts, but sometimes when I open the file, these characters have been changed to standard keyboard characters within the script.

For example, in my script, ’ changes to a standard apostrophe ' and – changes to a standard hyphen -.

These scripts are ones I have to run regularly, so having to manually correct this each time is a chore. I also haven't worked out what it is that triggers RStudio to make these changes. I've tried closing and reopening to test if that's the trigger, and the characters have remained correct. It only seems to happen after I've turned off my computer.

Does anyone know of a workaround for this and/or what is causing this? TIA

EDIT: the reason I need to do this is I export to csv which is UTF-8 encoded.

Answer 1

I've found a workaround, although I welcome any feedback on any drawbacks to this.

If you have already written your code (including the special characters):

Click File > Save with Encoding... > Show all encodings > unicodeFFFE

Now when you reopen the file:

Click File > Reopen with Encoding... > Show all encodings > unicodeFFFE

If you haven't already written your code, it should just be a case of saving your file from the start with the unicodeFFFE encoding (instructions above) before you write the code and then using the reopen with encoding option whenever you open the file.