[R] copying huge strings via clipboard?

[Jeff Newmiller]

Windows can handle up to 2GB in the clipboard... but IMO it isn't a good practice to rely on. Use files for reproducibility and portability. It is common for command line shells of all varieties to limit their buffer sizes considerably.

On March 4, 2022 9:34:15 AM PST, David Winsemius <dwinsemius using comcast.net> wrote:
>
>On 3/4/22 08:45, Carl Witthoft wrote:
>> Hi,
>> This is on Windows10 via the R gui  .  I, admittedly inadvisably, 
>> tried to create a new character object by first copying a 1-million 
>> character string (including lead and trail "'" chars) to the clipboard 
>> and then, in the console,
>>
>> >> foo <-
>> and hitting "paste"
>>
>> What I found is that, around 5000 characters, a newline ( "\n") char 
>> showed up.  Is this something that the Windows Clipboard does, or 
>> something odd about pasting into a command in R?
>
>I'm the wrong person to comment on Windows clipboard features.
>
>ISTR that there is a character limit for R command line input, at least 
>in some or perhaps all R installations.
>
>Subject: 	[R] parsing - input buffer overflow 
><http://markmail.org/message/iyjlmfsb4kp63cyi> 	permalink 
><http://markmail.org/message/iyjlmfsb4kp63cyi>
>From: 	Prof Brian Ripley (rip... using stats.ox.ac.uk)
>Date: 	Jun 13, 2008 1:52:06 am
>List: 	org.r-project.r-help
>
>"R does have limits on the command line length (1024 bytes up to 
>R-devel, 4096 bytes there). What happens if you exceed that depends on 
>the interface you are using (and you have not told us). Beyond that, the 
>parser has a limit of MAXELTSIZE (8192 bytes) on strings.
>
>I don't see any need for 'improvement' though: why are you entering very 
>long strings as part of the R program? They are data, and e.g. 
>readLines() and scan() have no limits on string length beyond those 
>imposed by R's internals (2^31-1 bytes)."
>
>
>I think that info is still current since a search of the 
>../manuals/R-int page says:
>
>--- copied
>
>The|R_StringBuffer|structure needs to be initialized, for example by
>
>static R_StringBuffer ex_buff = {NULL, 0, MAXELTSIZE};
>
>which uses a default size of|MAXELTSIZE = 8192|bytes.Most current uses 
>have a static|R_StringBuffer|structure, which allows the (default-sized) 
>buffer to be shared between calls to e.g.|grep|and even between 
>functions: this will need to be changed if R ever allows concurrent 
>evaluation threads.
>
>--- end copy
>
>

-- 
Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.