R help - Jan 2007 - help with function "system" and MS-DOS command TYPE

Greetings -

I have a quick question that I hope someone will have a quick answer. I
have tried to use the R function "system" with the MS-DOS command
"type"
to display the full content of a text file. But it always returns with a
message saying the text file is not found. I could accomplish the same
task with the "cat" command which is one of the unix-like commands
that
I have installed on my windows machine. But I would like to know how it
would work with the "type" command.  

Here is what I have tried:
> zz<-file("d:/work/test/test.txt", "w")
> cat("this is a test\n", file=zz)
> close(zz)
> system("cat test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
this is a test
> system("type test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
test.txt not found
>

Thanks much for any help that you could offer. 

Best, 

Xiao Chen
Statistical Consulting Group
UCLA Academic Technology Services
http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/

Chen, Xiao wrote:
> 
> Greetings -
> 
> I have a quick question that I hope someone will have a quick answer. I
> have tried to use the R function "system" with the MS-DOS command
"type"
> to display the full content of a text file. But it always returns with a
> message saying the text file is not found. I could accomplish the same 
> task with the "cat" command which is one of the unix-like
commands that
> I have installed on my windows machine. But I would like to know how it 
> would work with the "type" command.  
> 
> Here is what I have tried:
> 
>> zz<-file("d:/work/test/test.txt", "w")
>> cat("this is a test\n", file=zz)
>> close(zz)
>> system("cat test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
> this is a test
>> system("type test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
> test.txt not found
> 
type is an internal command, rather than an executable file

use
system("cmd /c type test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
or
system("command /c type test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)

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Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

Try 'file.show'

On 1/30/07, Chen, Xiao <jingy1 at ucla.edu> wrote:
> Greetings -
>
> I have a quick question that I hope someone will have a quick answer. I
> have tried to use the R function "system" with the MS-DOS command
"type"
> to display the full content of a text file. But it always returns with a
> message saying the text file is not found. I could accomplish the same
> task with the "cat" command which is one of the unix-like
commands that
> I have installed on my windows machine. But I would like to know how it
> would work with the "type" command.
>
> Here is what I have tried:
>
> > zz<-file("d:/work/test/test.txt", "w")
> > cat("this is a test\n", file=zz)
> > close(zz)
> > system("cat test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
> this is a test
> > system("type test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
> test.txt not found
> >
>
>
> Thanks much for any help that you could offer.
>
> Best,
>
> Xiao Chen
> Statistical Consulting Group
> UCLA Academic Technology Services
> http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

-- 
Jim Holtman
Cincinnati, OH
+1 513 646 9390

What is the problem you are trying to solve?

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007, Vladimir Eremeev wrote:
> Chen, Xiao wrote:
>>
>> Greetings -
>>
>> I have a quick question that I hope someone will have a quick answer. I
>> have tried to use the R function "system" with the MS-DOS
command "type"
>> to display the full content of a text file. But it always returns with
a
>> message saying the text file is not found. I could accomplish the same
>> task with the "cat" command which is one of the unix-like
commands that
>> I have installed on my windows machine. But I would like to know how it
>> would work with the "type" command.
>>
>> Here is what I have tried:
>>
>>> zz<-file("d:/work/test/test.txt", "w")
>>> cat("this is a test\n", file=zz)
>>> close(zz)
>>> system("cat test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
>> this is a test
>>> system("type test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
>> test.txt not found
>>
>
> type is an internal command, rather than an executable file
>
> use
> system("cmd /c type test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
> or
> system("command /c type test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
or use the user-friendly version shell(), as it says on the help page for 
system() (together with a portable version of the above).

Please can people who answer questions do their homework as the posting 
guide requests, and point to the definitive documentation.  The archives 
of these lists are a public resource, and often searched to pick up
pieces of misinformation.

-- 
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

Dear R-Help,

Thanks much. 

I have received very good advice from a couple of experts.  R-help is
just wonderful!

I have combined all the solutions that I got and they are shown below:

zz<-file("d:/work/test/test.txt", "w") 
cat("this is a test\n", file=zz)
close(zz)

setwd("d:/work/test")
shell("type test.txt") 
system("cat test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
file.show("d:/work/test/test.txt") #opens a new window
file.show("d:/work/test/test.txt", pager="console")
#displays on console

Thanks again for all the help. 

Best regards,

Xiao Chen
Statistical Consulting Group
UCLA Academic Technology Services
http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/

-----Original Message-----
From: Chen, Xiao 
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 8:23 PM
To: 'r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch'
Subject: help with function "system" and MS-DOS command TYPE

Greetings -

I have a quick question that I hope someone will have a quick answer. I
have tried to use the R function "system" with the MS-DOS command
"type"
to display the full content of a text file. But it always returns with a
message saying the text file is not found. I could accomplish the same
task with the "cat" command which is one of the unix-like commands
that
I have installed on my windows machine. But I would like to know how it
would work with the "type" command.  

Here is what I have tried:
> zz<-file("d:/work/test/test.txt", "w")
> cat("this is a test\n", file=zz)
> close(zz)
> system("cat test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
this is a test
> system("type test.txt", show.output.on.console=T)
test.txt not found
>

Thanks much for any help that you could offer. 

Best, 

Xiao Chen
Statistical Consulting Group
UCLA Academic Technology Services
http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/