[R] backslash quirk in paste

[Jeff Newmiller]

fname = "John"; lname = "Smith"
ans <- paste( fname, " \\ ", lname )
cat( ans)
print( ans )

Note that ans only has one backslash in it, but print gives you a source-suitable string with the escape character.

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Jeff Newmiller                        The     .....       .....  Go Live...
DCN:<jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us>        Basics: ##.#.       ##.#.  Live Go...
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Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.

On December 6, 2014 11:00:46 AM PST, "Prof J C Nash (U30A)" <nashjc at uottawa.ca> wrote:
>This is NOT critical. It arose due to a fumble fingers when developing
>an R example, but slightly intriguing.
>
>How could one build a string from substrings with a single backslash
>(\)
>as separator. Here's the reproducible example:
>
>fname = "John"; lname = "Smith"
>paste(fname, lname)
>paste(fname, lname, sep=" / ")
># BUT there's a glitch with backslash
>paste(fname, lname, sep=" \ ") # because of escaping character
>paste(fname, lname, sep=' \ ')
>paste(fname, lname, sep=' \\ ') # because of escaping character
>bslash <- "\\"
>print(bslash)
>paste(fname, lname, sep=bslash)
>
>Possibly the answer is that R never allows a single backslash in its
>strings, but I can imagine possible cases where I might want to output
>such lines, for example, in documenting this.
>
>Best, JN
>
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