Is it possible to use R package data in testthat tests or run_examples()?

Question

I'm working on developing an R package, using devtools, testthat, and roxygen2. I have a couple of data sets in the data folder (foo.txt and bar.csv).

My file structure looks like this:

/ mypackage
    / data
        * foo.txt, bar.csv
    / inst
        / tests
            * run-all.R, test_1.R
    / man
    / R

I'm pretty sure 'foo' and 'bar' are documented correctly:

    #' Foo data
    #'
    #' Sample foo data
    #'
    #' @name foo
    #' @docType data
    NULL
    #' Bar data
    #'
    #' Sample bar data
    #'
    #' @name bar
    #' @docType data
    NULL

I would like to use the data in 'foo' and 'bar' in my documentation examples and unit tests.

For example, I would like to use these data sets in my testthat tests by calling:

    data(foo)
    data(bar)
    expect_that(foo$col[1], equals(bar$col[1]))

And, I would like the examples in the documentation to look like this:

    #' @examples
    #' data(foo)
    #' functionThatUsesFoo(foo)

If I try to call data(foo) while developing the package, I get the error "data set 'foo' not found". However, if I build the package, install it, and load it - then I can make the tests and examples work.

My current work-arounds are to not run the example:

    #' @examples
    #' \dontrun{data(foo)}
    #' \dontrun{functionThatUsesFoo(foo)}

And in the tests, pre-load the data using a path specific to my local computer:

    foo <- read.delim(pathToFoo, sep="\t", fill = TRUE, comment.char="#")
    bar <- read.delim(pathToBar, sep=";", fill = TRUE, comment.char="#"
    expect_that(foo$col[1], equals(bar$col[1]))

This does not seem ideal - especially since I'm collaborating with others - requiring all the collaborators to have the same full paths to 'foo' and 'bar'. Plus, the examples in the documentation look like they can't be run, even though once the package is installed, they can.

Any suggestions? Thanks much.