[R] R Markdown and scan()

[peter dalgaard]

> On 25 Oct 2014, at 16:43 , John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:
> 
> Dear JJ and list members,
> 
> I wonder whether it's possible to get scan() to read in-line data in an R Markdown document. The following code, for example, works (of course) when entered in the R console but fails in an R block in an R Markdown document (using an up-to-date version of RStudio):
> 
> ```{r}
> x <- scan()
> 1 2 3
> 4 5 6
> 
> x
> ````
> 
> I'm aware of a couple of work-arounds, such as putting the data in a file or a character string (as below), but am interested in whether it's possible to get this to work directly.
> 
> ```{r}
> text <- "
> 1 2 3
> 4 5 6
> "
> (x <- scan(file=textConnection(text)))
> ````
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.

This generally isn't easy. You can't source() a file like that either, it only works on std.input, and even there it is tricky it you have tabs in the (pasted) data. Notice that
 
scan(text="
1 2 3
4 5 6
")

was designed for the purpose of reading inline data.

 
-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com