BACKGROUND:
I use SAS on a daily basis and one of its most powerful features in a
production environment is the use of LIBNAME and FILEREF statements, e.g.:
PROC PRINTTO LOG = "&LOGDIR.\data processing.log" NEW;
RUN;
PROC IMPORT
DATAFILE= "&DATADIR.\blah.xls"
OUT = TEMP
DBMS = EXCEL REPLACE;
SHEET = "Sheet1";
GETNAMES = YES;
RUN;
Properly setting up SAS Shortcuts in the WinXP environment, or (say)
the UNIX equivalent of batch files in the UNIX environment will cause
SAS to autoexecute (say) an INIT.SAS file that automatically assigns
the LOGDIR and DATADIR macro variables used above. This is extremely
convenient because it makes the SAS code more portable from project to
project.
MY QUESTION:
Is it possible to use this kind of relative file and directory referencing
from within R?
Kind regards,
Greg
On Mon, 27 Feb 2006, Greg Tarpinian wrote:> BACKGROUND: > I use SAS on a daily basis and one of its most powerful features in a > production environment is the use of LIBNAME and FILEREF statements, e.g.: > > > PROC PRINTTO LOG = "&LOGDIR.\data processing.log" NEW; > RUN; > PROC IMPORT > DATAFILE= "&DATADIR.\blah.xls" > OUT = TEMP > DBMS = EXCEL REPLACE; > SHEET = "Sheet1"; > GETNAMES = YES; > RUN; > > > Properly setting up SAS Shortcuts in the WinXP environment, or (say) > the UNIX equivalent of batch files in the UNIX environment will cause > SAS to autoexecute (say) an INIT.SAS file that automatically assigns > the LOGDIR and DATADIR macro variables used above. This is extremely > convenient because it makes the SAS code more portable from project to > project. > > > MY QUESTION: > Is it possible to use this kind of relative file and directory referencing > from within R?Perhaps you are looking for ?setwd Uwe ligges> > Kind regards, > > > Greg > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >
On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Uwe Ligges wrote:> > > On Mon, 27 Feb 2006, Greg Tarpinian wrote: > >> BACKGROUND: >> I use SAS on a daily basis and one of its most powerful features in a >> production environment is the use of LIBNAME and FILEREF statements, e.g.: >> >> >> PROC PRINTTO LOG = "&LOGDIR.\data processing.log" NEW; >> RUN; >> PROC IMPORT >> DATAFILE= "&DATADIR.\blah.xls" >> OUT = TEMP >> DBMS = EXCEL REPLACE; >> SHEET = "Sheet1"; >> GETNAMES = YES; >> RUN; >> >> >> Properly setting up SAS Shortcuts in the WinXP environment, or (say) >> the UNIX equivalent of batch files in the UNIX environment will cause >> SAS to autoexecute (say) an INIT.SAS file that automatically assigns >> the LOGDIR and DATADIR macro variables used above. This is extremely >> convenient because it makes the SAS code more portable from project to >> project. >> >> >> MY QUESTION: >> Is it possible to use this kind of relative file and directory referencing >> from within R? > > Perhaps you are looking for ?setwdAnother idea is to use environment variables. So if in an R function I have xls_file <- file.path(Sys.getenv("DATADIR"), "blah.xls") I can R run from a shortcut, appending DATADIR=J:/foo/bar to the command line. -- Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595
Thank you both for your helpful suggestions. My ignorance of R prevents me
from understanding exactly how to
"...run from a shortcut, appending DATADIR=J:/foo/bar to the
command line"
but I assume that Appendix C of "S Programming" will help me there --
I was
unaware of this material when I posted my question. I was able to success-
fully use the following:
> Sys.putenv("R_DATADIR"="Z:/.../raw")
> Sys.getenv("R_DATADIR")
R_DATADIR
"Z:/.../raw"
> file.path(Sys.getenv("R_DATADIR"), "RAWDATA.xls")
[1] "Z:/.../raw/RAWDATA.xls"
Using this type of code, I should be able to "point" R at data and
output
directories. In my industry, programmers are required to save their SAS
log files for auditing purposes, and knowing that R has similar capabilities
is very helpful.
Again, thanks for your help. Kind regards,
Greg
--- Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Uwe Ligges wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 27 Feb 2006, Greg Tarpinian wrote:
> >
> >> BACKGROUND:
> >> I use SAS on a daily basis and one of its most powerful features
in a
> >> production environment is the use of LIBNAME and FILEREF
statements, e.g.:
> >>
> >>
> >> PROC PRINTTO LOG = "&LOGDIR.\data processing.log"
NEW;
> >> RUN;
> >> PROC IMPORT
> >> DATAFILE= "&DATADIR.\blah.xls"
> >> OUT = TEMP
> >> DBMS = EXCEL REPLACE;
> >> SHEET = "Sheet1";
> >> GETNAMES = YES;
> >> RUN;
> >>
> >>
> >> Properly setting up SAS Shortcuts in the WinXP environment, or
(say)
> >> the UNIX equivalent of batch files in the UNIX environment will
cause
> >> SAS to autoexecute (say) an INIT.SAS file that automatically
assigns
> >> the LOGDIR and DATADIR macro variables used above. This is
extremely
> >> convenient because it makes the SAS code more portable from
project to
> >> project.
> >>
> >>
> >> MY QUESTION:
> >> Is it possible to use this kind of relative file and directory
referencing
> >> from within R?
> >
> > Perhaps you are looking for ?setwd
>
> Another idea is to use environment variables. So if in an R function I
> have
>
> xls_file <- file.path(Sys.getenv("DATADIR"),
"blah.xls")
>
> I can R run from a shortcut, appending DATADIR=J:/foo/bar to the command
> line.
>
> --
> Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
> Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
> University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self)
> 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595
>
On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Greg Tarpinian wrote:> Thank you both for your helpful suggestions. My ignorance of R prevents me > from understanding exactly how to > > "...run from a shortcut, appending DATADIR=J:/foo/bar to the > command line"See the rw-FAQ for more details.> but I assume that Appendix C of "S Programming" will help me there -- I was > unaware of this material when I posted my question. I was able to success- > fully use the following: > > > Sys.putenv("R_DATADIR"="Z:/.../raw") > > Sys.getenv("R_DATADIR") > R_DATADIR > "Z:/.../raw" > > file.path(Sys.getenv("R_DATADIR"), "RAWDATA.xls") > [1] "Z:/.../raw/RAWDATA.xls" > > Using this type of code, I should be able to "point" R at data and output > directories. In my industry, programmers are required to save their SAS > log files for auditing purposes, and knowing that R has similar capabilities > is very helpful. > > Again, thanks for your help. Kind regards, > > > Greg > > > > > --- Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > >> On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Uwe Ligges wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> On Mon, 27 Feb 2006, Greg Tarpinian wrote: >>> >>>> BACKGROUND: >>>> I use SAS on a daily basis and one of its most powerful features in a >>>> production environment is the use of LIBNAME and FILEREF statements, e.g.: >>>> >>>> >>>> PROC PRINTTO LOG = "&LOGDIR.\data processing.log" NEW; >>>> RUN; >>>> PROC IMPORT >>>> DATAFILE= "&DATADIR.\blah.xls" >>>> OUT = TEMP >>>> DBMS = EXCEL REPLACE; >>>> SHEET = "Sheet1"; >>>> GETNAMES = YES; >>>> RUN; >>>> >>>> >>>> Properly setting up SAS Shortcuts in the WinXP environment, or (say) >>>> the UNIX equivalent of batch files in the UNIX environment will cause >>>> SAS to autoexecute (say) an INIT.SAS file that automatically assigns >>>> the LOGDIR and DATADIR macro variables used above. This is extremely >>>> convenient because it makes the SAS code more portable from project to >>>> project. >>>> >>>> >>>> MY QUESTION: >>>> Is it possible to use this kind of relative file and directory referencing >>>> from within R? >>> >>> Perhaps you are looking for ?setwd >> >> Another idea is to use environment variables. So if in an R function I >> have >> >> xls_file <- file.path(Sys.getenv("DATADIR"), "blah.xls") >> >> I can R run from a shortcut, appending DATADIR=J:/foo/bar to the command >> line. >> >> -- >> Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk >> Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ >> University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) >> 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) >> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595 >> > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > >-- Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595
I think the idea of the prior respondents was that R_DATADIR would be set outside R and the application and just fetched from an environment variable inside the application so that the application is independent of it. If, in fact, your R code knows the data directory anyways, you could just do datadir <- "J:/foo/bar" file.path(datadir, "rawdata.xls") On 2/28/06, Greg Tarpinian <sasprog474474 at yahoo.com> wrote:> Thank you both for your helpful suggestions. My ignorance of R prevents me > from understanding exactly how to > > "...run from a shortcut, appending DATADIR=J:/foo/bar to the > command line" > > but I assume that Appendix C of "S Programming" will help me there -- I was > unaware of this material when I posted my question. I was able to success- > fully use the following: > > > Sys.putenv("R_DATADIR"="Z:/.../raw") > > Sys.getenv("R_DATADIR") > R_DATADIR > "Z:/.../raw" > > file.path(Sys.getenv("R_DATADIR"), "RAWDATA.xls") > [1] "Z:/.../raw/RAWDATA.xls" > > Using this type of code, I should be able to "point" R at data and output > directories. In my industry, programmers are required to save their SAS > log files for auditing purposes, and knowing that R has similar capabilities > is very helpful. > > Again, thanks for your help. Kind regards, > > > Greg > > > > > --- Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > > > On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Uwe Ligges wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > On Mon, 27 Feb 2006, Greg Tarpinian wrote: > > > > > >> BACKGROUND: > > >> I use SAS on a daily basis and one of its most powerful features in a > > >> production environment is the use of LIBNAME and FILEREF statements, e.g.: > > >> > > >> > > >> PROC PRINTTO LOG = "&LOGDIR.\data processing.log" NEW; > > >> RUN; > > >> PROC IMPORT > > >> DATAFILE= "&DATADIR.\blah.xls" > > >> OUT = TEMP > > >> DBMS = EXCEL REPLACE; > > >> SHEET = "Sheet1"; > > >> GETNAMES = YES; > > >> RUN; > > >> > > >> > > >> Properly setting up SAS Shortcuts in the WinXP environment, or (say) > > >> the UNIX equivalent of batch files in the UNIX environment will cause > > >> SAS to autoexecute (say) an INIT.SAS file that automatically assigns > > >> the LOGDIR and DATADIR macro variables used above. This is extremely > > >> convenient because it makes the SAS code more portable from project to > > >> project. > > >> > > >> > > >> MY QUESTION: > > >> Is it possible to use this kind of relative file and directory referencing > > >> from within R? > > > > > > Perhaps you are looking for ?setwd > > > > Another idea is to use environment variables. So if in an R function I > > have > > > > xls_file <- file.path(Sys.getenv("DATADIR"), "blah.xls") > > > > I can R run from a shortcut, appending DATADIR=J:/foo/bar to the command > > line. > > > > -- > > Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk > > Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ > > University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) > > 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) > > Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595 > > > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >