[R] impossible escape?

[Marc Schwartz]

On Wed, 2006-10-11 at 13:30 -0400, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
> Greetings:
> 
> I've searched the R archives with no luck.
> 
> I want to print this to the screen as part of on-screen instructions as an
> example:
> 
> default.FACTOR.labels <- c("Probe1", "Probe2", "Probe3")
> 
> I can't seem to trick gsub()
> 
> gsub("'", "\"", "default.FACTOR.labels <- c('Probe1', 'Probe2', 'Probe3'))")
> 
> [1] "default.FACTOR.labels <- c(\"Probe1\", \"Probe2\", \"Probe3\"))"
>                                 ^       ^   ^       ^   ^       ^          
> 
> which gives me \" rather than "
> 
> Is it possible to escape the " character?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Charles Annis, P.E.


You don't need the gsub() and you want to use cat() to output the text:


> cat("default.FACTOR.labels <- c(\"Probe1\", \"Probe2\", \"Probe3
       \")\n")
default.FACTOR.labels <- c("Probe1", "Probe2", "Probe3")


cat() will properly interpret and output the escaped characters.  The
newline character "\n" will return the cursor to the next line, so that
the R prompt is not at the end of the last line output.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz