cat
Print the Arguments
Description
Coerces arguments to mode character, and then prints them to
standard output, or to a specified file or connection.
Usage
cat(..., file = "", sep = " ", fill = FALSE, labels = NULL,
append = FALSE)
Arguments
| ... |
any S objects.
The objects are coerced to character data and printed, using the other
arguments to control the output. All the elements of the first object
are printed, and then all the elements of the second, and so on.
|
| file |
a string containing the file name or a connection to which to print.
If file is "" (the default), cat prints
to the standard output.
|
| sep |
a vector of character strings to insert between successive
data items of each object. This argument is used cyclically.
The first element of this vector is used to separate
different ... objects.
|
| fill |
a positive numeric or a logical value. Specifies if the output should
be broken automatically into successive lines, with newline characters
added after each line.
- If numeric, the value of fill controls the width of
the printing. A newline is placed before the first string that
makes the present line exceed fill characters.
- If TRUE, the width option controls the width of
the printing, and a newline is placed before the first string that
makes the present line exceed fill characters.
- If FALSE (the default), no newline characters are printed
unless some are specified within the ... or sep
arguments.
|
| labels |
a vector of character strings to be used as labels at the start of
each line. The labels are used cyclically if there fewer than the
number of lines. This argument is relevant only if fill is
TRUE or non-zero.
|
| append |
a logical flag. If TRUE, the output is appended to file.
If FALSE (the default), output overwrites the contents of
file.
|
Details
The output contains a final newline if the sep argument
contains a newline, or if the fill argument is numeric or
TRUE.
cat prints each numeric value to as many digits as needed
to represent it. (Use format to control the formatting of
numeric values.)
If
file is a connection,
cat will convert characters to
the connection's character encoding (see
file).
If
file is a file name, the default character encoding
options("encoding") is used.
Side Effects
either the objects are printed, or file is created or appended.
Note
cat is not designed to produce a full description
of arbitrary objects. If you want to do this, use dput
or dump. To get output as the engine ordinarily prints it,
use the print function.
When using ascii codes in a character string, "\n" and "\t" denote ascii
newline and tab characters, respectively,
"\\" denotes a backslash, and "\"" represents a quote within a string.
Arbitrary ascii codes may be included by "\nnn"
where nnn is a 3-digit number in octal notation
(e.g. "\012" is the same as "\n").
See Also
Examples
x <- 42
cat("current x:", x, "\n")
# current x: 42
cat(LETTERS[1:10], "\n", sep="!")
# A!B!C!D!E!F!G!H!I!J!
cat(LETTERS[1:10], "\n", sep="!", fill=6)
# A!B!C!
# D!E!F!
# G!H!I!
# J!
cat(1:10, fill=8, labels=letters[1:3])
# a 1 2 3
# b 4 5 6
# c 7 8 9
# a 10
cat(LETTERS[1:3], LETTERS[4:6], sep=letters, fill=30)
# AaBbCaDdEeF