[R] invalid \uxxxx sequence while trying to create a package

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 18/03/2008 5:17 PM, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
> Greetings, R-Helpers:
> 
>  
> 
> I am trying to build a package on WinXP, something that I have done before,
> but infrequently, and have recently updated both the Rtools and the version
> of R being used.
> 
>  
> 
> My test case fails after successfully creating the compiled html files with
> this error message:
> 
> .
> 
> .
> 
> .
> 
> Created
> c:\DOCUME~1\CHARLE~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\Rbuild142865646\March18\chm\March18.chm,
> 41,494 bytes
> 
> Compression decreased file by 50,957 bytes.
> 
>   preparing package March18 for lazy loading
> 
> Loading required package: rcom
> 
> Loading required package: RODBC
> 
> Loading required package: RColorBrewer
> 
> Loading required package: survival
> 
> Loading required package: splines
> 
> Error in parse(n = -1, file = file) : invalid \uxxxx sequence
> 
> Calls: <Anonymous> -> code2LazyLoadDB -> sys.source -> parse
> 
> Execution halted
> 
> make: *** [lazyload] Error 1
> 
> *** Installation of March18 failed ***
> 
>  
> 
> Removing 'C:/DOCUME~1/CHARLE~1/LOCALS~1/Temp/Rinst142800030/March18'
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> While I can clearly read that the problem is invalid \uxxxx sequence I don't
> know what it means nor how to remedy it. 
> 
>  
> 
> Helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The \uxxxx sequences are Unicode characters.  The xxxx are supposed to 
be hexadecimal digits.  So you might have something like

cat("\u00B7")

to display a dot.  "Invalid" means it's not recognized, or not well-formed.

So what I'd suggest is to search your source code for \u, and see if you 
inadvertantly included this for some other purpose.  Alternatively, it's 
possible something has translated a non-Ascii character into a \uxxxx 
sequence; I don't know what might have done that.

If none of that works, you could try reporting on what versions of 
everything you're using.  You didn't mention that yet.  And if they are 
all currrent versions (R 2.6.2, Rtools 2.7) then I guess you'll just 
have to divide and conquer: cut out half the source code and see if you 
still get the error.  If so, cut it again, if not, look in the other half.

Duncan Murdoch