edit {utils} | R Documentation |
Invoke a Text Editor
Description
Invoke a text editor on an R object.
Usage
edit(name, ...)
## Default S3 method:
edit(name = NULL, file = "", title = NULL,
editor = getOption("editor"), ...)
vi(name = NULL, file = "")
emacs(name = NULL, file = "")
pico(name = NULL, file = "")
xemacs(name = NULL, file = "")
xedit(name = NULL, file = "")
Arguments
name |
a named object that you want to edit. For the default
method, if |
file |
a string naming the file to write the edited version to. |
title |
a display name for the object being edited. |
editor |
usually a character string naming (or giving the path
to) the text editor you want to use. On Unix the default is set from
the environment variables EDITOR or VISUAL if either is
set, otherwise
|
... |
further arguments to be passed to or from methods. |
Details
edit
invokes the text editor specified by editor
with
the object name
to be edited. It is a generic function,
currently with a default method and one for data frames and matrices.
data.entry
can be used to edit data, and is used by edit
to edit matrices and data frames on systems for which
data.entry
is available.
It is important to realize that edit
does not change the object
called name
. Instead, a copy of name is made and it is that
copy which is changed. Should you want the changes to apply to the
object name
you must assign the result of edit
to
name
. (Try fix
if you want to make permanent
changes to an object.)
In the form edit(name)
,
edit
deparses name
into a temporary file and invokes the
editor editor
on this file. Quitting from the editor causes
file
to be parsed and that value returned.
Should an error occur in parsing, possibly due to incorrect syntax, no
value is returned. Calling edit()
, with no arguments, will
result in the temporary file being reopened for further editing.
Note that deparsing is not perfect, and the object recreated after
editing can differ in subtle ways from that deparsed: see
dput
and .deparseOpts
. (The deparse options
used are the same as the defaults for dump
.) Editing a
function will preserve its environment. See
edit.data.frame
for further changes that can occur when
editing a data frame or matrix.
Currently only the internal editor in Windows makes use of the
title
option; it displays the given name in the window
header.
Note
The functions vi
, emacs
, pico
, xemacs
,
xedit
rely on the corresponding editor being available and
being on the path. This is system-dependent.
See Also
edit.data.frame
,
data.entry
,
fix
.
Examples
## Not run:
# use xedit on the function mean and assign the changes
mean <- edit(mean, editor = "xedit")
# use vi on mean and write the result to file mean.out
vi(mean, file = "mean.out")
## End(Not run)