[R] Version Number of a Package

[Jeff Gentry]

> I am documenting an analysis procedure in a DB and I would like to know the 
> specific version number of each package that I use.  Is there a standardized 
> way of getting that information out from R, or should I parse it out from the 
> source-code files?  Ideally I would like a function like this:
> myVerNum <- Version(package.names);

There are a several ways to skin that cat.

A few that come to mind are using package.description():
> package.description("Biobase")["Version"]
 Version 
"1.3.27" 

You can also use installed.packages():
> z <- installed.packages()
> z[1,"Version"]
[1] "1.2.28"

Also, in the Biobase package in Bioconductor (www.bioconductor.org),
there's a function package.version():

> package.version("Biobase")
[1] "1.3.27"

-J