R help - Apr 2006 - using latex() in R for Unix

I am using R for Unix and want to make some LaTeX tables.  I have
already played around in R for Windows and have succeeded in making
tables that I want using the following code:

latex(Estimates, file='out.tex', rowlabel='',digits=3)

However, when I use this code in Unix, I can never find the file
"out.tex".  I assumed that R would send the file to whatever directory
I was working in, but that does not seem to be the case.  So, I tried
specifiying the exact location where I want the file:

latex(Estimates, file='/home/b/bquinif/bq/9095/out.tex',
rowlabel='',digits=3)

When I do that, I get an error message sayin that the file/directory
does not exist.  I have written lots of files from Stata to locations
specified like above, so I don't understand what's going on.

Can anyone help me straighten this out?

Thanks,

Brian

"Brian Quinif" <bquinif at gmail.com> writes:
> I am using R for Unix and want to make some LaTeX tables.  I have
> already played around in R for Windows and have succeeded in making
> tables that I want using the following code:
> 
> latex(Estimates, file='out.tex', rowlabel='',digits=3)
> 
> However, when I use this code in Unix, I can never find the file
> "out.tex".  I assumed that R would send the file to whatever
directory
> I was working in, but that does not seem to be the case.  So, I tried
> specifiying the exact location where I want the file:
> 
> latex(Estimates, file='/home/b/bquinif/bq/9095/out.tex',
rowlabel='',digits=3)
> 
> When I do that, I get an error message sayin that the file/directory
> does not exist.  I have written lots of files from Stata to locations
> specified like above, so I don't understand what's going on.
> 
> Can anyone help me straighten this out?
I assume you mean latex() from the Hmisc package? You might want to
ask its maintainer. I can't reproduce your problem though; I get the
file nicely in the current directory. (I got slightly bugged by
Frank's idea of having the print method run latex on the file and fire
up a viewer - didn't play well with a terminal login. However, that's
completely unrelated).

Can you give a completely reproducible example that others might try?

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             ?ster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark          Ph:  (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)                  FAX: (+45) 35327907

The difficulty you are running into is related to the fact that
print methods return their argument as their value.  They do not
return a representation of the text that appears on the screen.
At some level, it looks like the intent is to capture the screen text
and reformat it for LaTeX.  This is not easily done without getting
inside the print method.

You can get an effect close to what you want with the single statement
  tmp <- latex(list(Estimates, sumStat))  ## assignment prevents automatic
printing
but it will still produce two table environments, one for each component
of the list.

The result you are looking for is not a simple rectangular array.
We have zillions of arguments in latex() for controlling the appearance
of rectangular arrays.  The types of controls that are needed for more
general structures are more general and we don't have all that you would
want.
You might want to look at the insert.bottom argument and the caption and
caption.loc
arguments.

For full control, you have the choice of doing formatting on the R side or
on the LaTeX side.  You can write 
  sumStat <- paste("\multicolumn{3}{l}{", "N= 
",sum(sumobj$df[-1]), ", R^2 =",
                   sumobj$r.squared, ", RMSE = ", sumobj$sigma,
"}")
on the R side.  Or you can edit the latex file to add
the \multicolumn.  Since you will need to edit the latex anyway to move
the line from its own table to the bottom of the first table,
I think it would be easier to do everything on the LaTeX side.