[R] Ouput several lines of cat

(Ted Harding) Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk
Fri Jul 30 18:44:29 CEST 2010


On 30-Jul-10 12:20:35, rajibshibly wrote:
> Hello,
> I am brand new to R. I need to know how to output the contents
> of cat function into a text file. The cat is used to output
> several lines of string in the following format:
> X XXX
> X XX.XX 
> XXXX-XXXX  ( XX.XX XXX ) 
> 
> I need to get the output of all these lines into a text file.
> I tried to put a file name in the cat function. However the output
> file only displays single line output. 
> Thanks

cat() is somewhat special in that, by default, it does not output
a new line after each element in the list being output:

  cat("A B C","D E F","G H I")
  # A B C D E F G H I

However, you can get it to inset one by using the "sep" argument
(default sep = " " as in the above output):

  cat("A B C","D E F","G H I",sep="\n")
  # A B C
  # D E F
  # G H I

See the description in '?cat'. The name "cat", as in UNIX 'cat',
is an abbreviation for "catenate", which means to string things
together in a chain. Hence the default behaviour above (but with
spaces inserted to separate the original elements). For a true
catenation, with nothing separating the chained elements, see:

  cat("A B C","D E F","G H I",sep="")
  # A B CD E FG H I

Hoping this helps.
Ted.

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Date: 30-Jul-10                                       Time: 17:44:26
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