It will work if you paste a "\n" to the end of each line:
a <- data.frame(x=runif(4), y=runif(4), z=runif(4))
b <- capture.output(a)
c <- paste(b, "\n", sep="")
cat("Your data set is:\n", c, "\n")
----------------------------------------------
David L Carlson
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4352
> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-
> project.org] On Behalf Of ivo welch
> Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 3:31 PM
> To: Jeff Newmiller
> Cc: r-help
> Subject: Re: [R] print.data.frame to string?
>
> thanks, jeff. no, not capture.output(), but thanks for pointing me to
> it
> (I did not know it). capture.output flattens the data frame. I want
> the
> print.data.frame output, so that I can feed it to cat, and get
> reasonable
> newlines, too.
>
> regards,
>
> /iaw
> ----
> Ivo Welch (ivo.welch at gmail.com)
> J. Fred Weston Professor of Finance
> Anderson School at UCLA, C519
> http://www.ivo-welch.info/
> Editor, Critical Finance Review, http://www.critical-finance-
> review.org/
>
>
> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 1:19 PM, Jeff Newmiller
> <jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us>wrote:
>
> > capture.output(print(mydf))
> >
> > note that df is a base function... best to not use it as a variable.
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> > Jeff Newmiller The ..... ..... Go
> Live...
> > DCN:<jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us> Basics: ##.#. ##.#. Live
> > Go...
> > Live: OO#.. Dead: OO#..
> Playing
> > Research Engineer (Solar/Batteries O.O#. #.O#. with
> > /Software/Embedded Controllers) .OO#. .OO#.
> rocks...1k
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> > Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.
> >
> > ivo welch <ivo.welch at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > >dear R experts---is there a function that prints a data frame to a
> > >string?
> > >cat() cannot handle lists, so I cannot write cat("your data frame
> > >is:\n",
> > >df, "\n").
> > >
> > >regards, /iaw
> > >----
> > >Ivo Welch (ivo.welch at gmail.com)
> > >
> > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> > >
> > >______________________________________________
> > >R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> > >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > >PLEASE do read the posting guide
> > >http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> > >and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> >
> >
>
> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
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> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-
> guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.