[R] shell and shell.exec on Windows

[Erich Neuwirth]

Thanks Gabor,
system() indeed would be the answer, but it does not solve my problem
because of some inconsistencies in WindowsXP.
I will explain the story, because perhaps it can help somebody else to
avoid wasting time.
On my machine, when I doubleclick an .xlsm file, it is opened in Excel
2007. .xls files are opened in Excel 2003.
shell.exec("file.xls") and shell.exec("file.xlsm")
also open the files in Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 respectively.

system() does not invoke a shell, so I need to find the application
associated with Excel to create a string with the name
of the application and the name of the file to open.
Then, something like
system("\"c:\\mypath\\CorrectVersionOfExcel.exe\"
\"c:\\mydir\\myexcelfile.xlsm\"")
should work (and run the program invisibly)

There are two helpful shell commands in WinXP
ASSOC and FTYPE

ASSOC .xls
   .xls=Excel.Sheet.8

ASSOC .xlsm
   .xlsm=Excel.SheetMacroEnabled.12

ftype Excel.Sheet.8
  Excel.Sheet.8="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e

ftype Excel.SheetMacroEnabled.12
  Excel.SheetMacroEnabled.12="C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~2\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e

So despite the fact that doubleclicking .xlsm files or using
"shell.exec" opens Excel 2007
the application reported by assoc and ftype for .xlsm files is Excel 2003.


Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
> The system() function has an invisible= argument.  The ryacas package
> uses system() to run yacas.  See the runYacas() and
> yacasInvokeString() functions in yacas.R for examples:
>    http://ryacas.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/R/yacas.R
> 
> On 8/11/07, Erich Neuwirth <erich.neuwirth at univie.ac.at> wrote:
>> I have an Excel workbook "MyWorkbook.xls" containing an Auto_Open macro
>> which I want to be run from R.
>>
>> shell.exec("MyWorkbook.xls")
>> does that.
>>
>> shell("start MyWorkbook.xls")
>> also runs it.
>>
>> In both cases, the Excel window is visible on screen when Excel is started.
>> Is there a way of opening the sheet with a hidden Excel window?
>> start has some parameters (e.g. /MIN), which should allow this, but
>> shell("start /MIN MyWorkbook.xls")
>> also starts Excel visibly.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Erich Neuwirth, University of Vienna
>> Faculty of Computer Science
>> Computer Supported Didactics Working Group
>> Visit our SunSITE at http://sunsite.univie.ac.at
>> Phone: +43-1-4277-39464 Fax: +43-1-4277-39459
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> 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
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
> 
> 


-- 
Erich Neuwirth, University of Vienna
Faculty of Computer Science
Computer Supported Didactics Working Group
Visit our SunSITE at http://sunsite.univie.ac.at
Phone: +43-1-4277-39464 Fax: +43-1-4277-39459