[R] Sweaving single master file to get multipleindividualised reports

[Greg Snow]

Here are a couple of thoughts:

You can use 'file.rename' to rename the .tex file created by Sweave to
your pattern (within the loop if you stick with that approach).

I did something similar (using odfWeave) where the template file always
accessed a given dataframe (mydata1 for example) then when I wanted to
do the report for the different subsets of the data (full data in
mydata) I would use something like:

> mydata1 <- subset(mydata, ...
> odfWeave(...
> file.rename( ...

You could do something similar in your loop, or even better,
The Sweave manual has as one of the faqs (#3) how to run sweave as a
batch process, what you need to do is use make and makefiles (will be
well worth your effort to learn if you don't know about them already,
there are versions of make available for windows).  You can set up a
rule for making a .tex file from a .nws (or whatever file) including the
subsetting and renaming, then also set up rules for making your final
pdf file from the .tex file.  Then at the command line you can just type
"make" or "make all" to generate all the reports and "make
myreport-1.pdf" to only regenerate a single report (and if you can get
things set up in just the right way, typing "make" will only regenerate
those reports that have had data change since the last time you ran
them).

Hope this helps,

-- 
Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
Statistical Data Center
Intermountain Healthcare
greg.snow at intermountainmail.org
(801) 408-8111
 
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Edith Hodgen
> Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 3:43 PM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: [R] Sweaving single master file to get 
> multipleindividualised reports
> 
> Hi
> 
> Apologies in advance if I've missed something obvious. I have 
> read the Sweave manual, the first article in R News, looked 
> at the Help pages, googled Sweave and words like loop, 
> output, files, multiple, done much the same on R site search 
> (in case I missed something on Google) and I couldn't find 
> exactly what I'm after.
> 
> What I'm trying to do
> -----------------------
> Make individualised school (or regional or ...) reports 
> combining generic words, overall totals and individual 
> results (in tables and graphs), typically reporting student 
> assessment data.
> 
> System info
> -------------
> Windows XP
> R 2-5-1 (always wait for the R x-x-1 version) Latest Miktex 
> Working in latest Emacs with the help of ESS & Auctex Have 
> (but seldom use) cygwin
> 
> What I think the problem is (I'm hoping it's not)
> -------------------------------
> I've used odfWeave to do something similar, and was then able 
> to specify both the infile and the outfile (and so could go 
> something like infile = template.odf and outfile = 
> paste("ReportName",schoolname,".odt",sep = ""). 
> 
> [Why stop using odfWeave? a) runs slowly with all the zipping 
> and unzipping b) very cryptic error messages c) using eps to 
> get high quality graphics results in a somewhat flaky 
> OpenOffice file where scrolling through it to check 
> pagination and table widths is really hard
> d) turning the OpenOffice file into a pdf to send to the 
> schools requires an extra step or two that is both 
> time-consuming and a nuisance
> e) computer got very hot and bothered running a number of 
> multipage reports - to the point of having to be left to cool 
> down before trying again.]
> 
> This involved an R file that had
> 
> # getting packages, reading data etc stuff
> :
> :
> # doing some pre-processing on project-wide totals- easier 
> here where it can be debugged bit by bit
> :
> :
> for (i in 1:Nschools){
> # set indicator variable for school i or otherwise set up 
> subset for a school
> :
> # more pre-processing for school/regional summaries
> :
> :
> infile <- "templateName.odt"      # same for all schools/regions
> outfile <- paste("ReportName",schoolname,".odt",sep = "")  # 
> unique to school/region
> odfWeave(infile,outfile)
> }
> 
> However, as far as I can see (admittedly, seldom very far) 
> the equivalent Sweave call is just Sweave(SnwFile) which 
> would create SnwFile.tex.
> 
> What I'm hoping for
> ---------------------
> Any one or more of:
> 
> - A blasting for lack of understanding that tells me it's all 
> easy, really (plus a "how to" or a "where to find and actually see")
> - A work-around
> - An idiot's guide to how to do it using a shell script or 
> equivalent (which I suspect to be the way to go)
> - Help with automatically LaTeXing (actually pdfLaTeXing) all 
> the *.tex files generated as a batch.
> 
> One advantage of the within-a-loop way of working is that 
> when the report for one or more schools needs re-running this 
> can be done without re-running the whole lot. This 
> flexibility needs to be part of the final solution.
> 
> Many thanks for any expertise and experience offered
> 
> 
> Edith Hodgen
> Statistician and Data Manager
> New Zealand Council for Educational Research Postal address: 
> P.O. Box 3237, Wellington 6140 Street address: Level 10, 
> Education House, 178-182 Willis Street,
>                         Te Aro, Wellington 6011
> Phone: +64-4-802 1433
> Fax:      +64-4-384 7933
> edith.hodgen at nzcer.org.nz
> 
> Web site http://www.nzcer.org.nz
> 
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