[R] using paste and "\" to create a valid filename

[roger bos]

Thanks Uwe for the forward slash suggestion, that worked.  I believe
something has changed inside the RODBC package, because I ran the
following code this morning to update my packages:

x <- packageStatus(repositories="http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib")
st <- x$avai["Status"]
install.packages(rownames(st)[which(st$Status=="not installed")])

I don't know if RODBC was updated and I am not even sure how to find
out, but my old code works on my machine I didn't update and doesn't
work on the machine I did update.  I am not confident enough to file a
bug report, but I know something has changed.  I will use the forward
slash as a workaround for now.

Thanks again to everyone,  Roger


On 8/19/05, Uwe Ligges <ligges at statistik.uni-dortmund.de> wrote:
> Don't know about the details with RODBC here, why not just use forward
> slashes as in (used it in all of my courses and never tried "\\"
> before....):
> 
> rankFile <- paste("R:/New Ranks/SMC/SMC/", rankDate, ".xls", sep="")
> 
> Uwe Ligges
> 
> 
> roger bos wrote:
> 
> > I was surprise myself that I was having problems, because I have been
> > doing this for ahile, but I get erros with the RODBC connection.  For
> > example,
> >
> > rankFile <- paste("R:\\New Ranks\\SMC\\SMC\\",rankDate,".xls", sep="")
> >                       rankFile
> >                       xls <- odbcConnectExcel(rankFile)
> >                       xls
> >                       rankFile <- "R:\New Ranks\SMC\SMC\20050818.xls"
> >                       rankFile
> >                       xls <- odbcConnectExcel(rankFile)
> >                       xls
> >
> >
> > You won't have my filename, but feel free to try it with any excel
> > file you may have. Here is the R output.
> >
> >
> >
> >>rankFile <- paste("R:\\New Ranks\\SMC\\SMC\\",rankDate,".xls", sep="")
> >>rankFile
> >
> > [1] "R:\\New Ranks\\SMC\\SMC\\20050819.xls"
> >
> >>xls <- odbcConnectExcel(rankFile)
> >
> > Warning messages:
> > 1: [RODBC] ERROR: Could not SQLDriverConnect
> > 2: ODBC connection failed in: odbcDriverConnect(con)
> >
> >>xls
> >
> > [1] -1
> >
> >>rankFile <- "R:\New Ranks\SMC\SMC\20050818.xls"
> >>rankFile
> >
> > [1] "R:New RanksSMCSMC€50818.xls"
> >
> >>xls <- odbcConnectExcel(rankFile)
> >>xls
> >
> > RODB Connection 15
> > Details:
> >   case=nochange
> >   DBQ=R:New RanksSMCSMC€50818.xls
> >   DefaultDir=R:\NEW RANKS\SMC
> >   Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls)}
> >   DriverId=790
> >   MaxBufferSize=2048
> >   PageTimeout=5
> >
> >
> > On 8/19/05, Uwe Ligges <ligges at statistik.uni-dortmund.de> wrote:
> >
> >>roger bos wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>Sometimes even the easy stuff is difficult (for me)... I want to get
> >>>input from different places to paste together an excel filename (so
> >>>you know I'm using windows) that I can open with RODBC.  I know about
> >>>using double "\" since its an escape character, but I get either 2 or
> >>>none, I can't get just one "\" where I need it.  See example code
> >>>below.  I am using R 2.1.0, but plan to upgrade soon.  Thanks in
> >>>advance to anyone who can help.
> >>>
> >>>Roger
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>rankPath <- "R:\New Ranks\SMC\SMC"
> >>>rankDate <- "20050819"
> >>>rankFile <- paste(rankPath,rankDate,".xls", sep="")
> >>>rankFile
> >>>[1] "R:New RanksSMCSMC20050819.xls"
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>rankPath <- "R:\\New Ranks\\SMC\\SMC"
> >>>rankDate <- "20050819"
> >>>rankFile <- paste(rankPath,rankDate,".xls", sep="")
> >>>rankFile
> >>>[1] "R:\\New Ranks\\SMC\\SMC20050819.xls"
> >>
> >>
> >>This is perfect, "\" is *printed* escaped, hence for file access you can
> >>perfectly use this character vector.
> >>
> >>Uwe Ligges
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>>______________________________________________
> >>>R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> >>>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> >>>PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> >>
> >>
> 
>