R help - May 2008 - Character entry mismatch in the console window

Dear R users,

I have just de-installed my old R 2.4.1 and installed R 2.7.0. I 
downloaded this version from the South African mirror, as I am currently 
working in South Africa.

When trying to paste any of my old analyses into the console (I keep 
them in word-documents), I get an error when I first try to load the 
data with the following line (example):

lap.long.dist <- 
read.table(?C:\\Ranalysis\\SouthAfrica\\Lap.oreogena\\lap.long.distance.txt?, 
header = TRUE);

I get the error:

Error: unexpected input in "lap.long.dist <- read.table(?"

Note that (at least on my screen now) the two " (quotation marks) at the 
end of the error message are different. The only way I can make it work 
is to manually go and delete and re-type all the "-characters in my 
command line in R, before pressing enter.

This, to me, suggests that R now for some reason is "mis-matched" or 
whatever you want to call it with the way my computer uses (encodes?) 
its characters in other programmes.

I am sure there is an easy way to correct this in some setting, but 
despite an hour's search on the net and elsewhere, I am no closer to 
solving the problem.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Dennis

-- 

Dennis Hansen, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar
Department of Biology
371 Serra Mall, Gilbert Building, Room 109
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-5020
USA
-----------------------
?Everything that shouldn?t be done to an island has been done to Mauritius.
Except, perhaps, nuclear testing? ?Richard Lewis

Since you are using WORD, you will have to turn off the "smart quotes"
since WORD is changing them as you type.  You may just want to use
something like TINN-R to store your scripts.

On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 8:49 AM, Dennis Hansen <dmhansen at stanford.edu>
wrote:
> Dear R users,
>
> I have just de-installed my old R 2.4.1 and installed R 2.7.0. I downloaded
> this version from the South African mirror, as I am currently working in
> South Africa.
>
> When trying to paste any of my old analyses into the console (I keep them
in
> word-documents), I get an error when I first try to load the data with the
> following line (example):
>
> lap.long.dist <-
>
read.table("C:\\Ranalysis\\SouthAfrica\\Lap.oreogena\\lap.long.distance.txt",
> header = TRUE);
>
> I get the error:
>
> Error: unexpected input in "lap.long.dist <-
read.table(""
>
> Note that (at least on my screen now) the two " (quotation marks) at
the end
> of the error message are different. The only way I can make it work is to
> manually go and delete and re-type all the "-characters in my command
line
> in R, before pressing enter.
>
> This, to me, suggests that R now for some reason is "mis-matched"
or
> whatever you want to call it with the way my computer uses (encodes?) its
> characters in other programmes.
>
> I am sure there is an easy way to correct this in some setting, but despite
> an hour's search on the net and elsewhere, I am no closer to solving
the
> problem.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice!
>
> Dennis
>
> --
>
> Dennis Hansen, PhD
>
> Postdoctoral Scholar
> Department of Biology
> 371 Serra Mall, Gilbert Building, Room 109
> Stanford University
> Stanford, CA 94305-5020
> USA
> -----------------------
> "Everything that shouldn't be done to an island has been done to
Mauritius.
> Except, perhaps, nuclear testing" ?Richard Lewis
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org 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?

So, you are on Windows (but didn't tell us).  Those 'quotes' in your
email
are the so-called smart quotes -- only ASCII quotation marks are accepted 
by R.

The change is that R 2.7.0 is actually reading what you pasted into the 
clipboard, not some converted version (as previous versions of R did, 
although why that conversion did not send the directional quotes which are 
in CP1252 is a mystery).  You need to sort this out in your OS -- it is 
best to switch off 'smart quotes' in Word, and do a search-and-replace 
there (or use a better editor).

On Mon, 5 May 2008, Dennis Hansen wrote:
> Dear R users,
>
> I have just de-installed my old R 2.4.1 and installed R 2.7.0. I downloaded
> this version from the South African mirror, as I am currently working in 
> South Africa.
>
> When trying to paste any of my old analyses into the console (I keep them
in
> word-documents), I get an error when I first try to load the data with the 
> following line (example):
>
> lap.long.dist <- 
>
read.table(?C:\\Ranalysis\\SouthAfrica\\Lap.oreogena\\lap.long.distance.txt?,
> header = TRUE);
>
> I get the error:
>
> Error: unexpected input in "lap.long.dist <- read.table(?"
>
> Note that (at least on my screen now) the two " (quotation marks) at
the end
> of the error message are different. The only way I can make it work is to 
> manually go and delete and re-type all the "-characters in my command
line in
> R, before pressing enter.
>
> This, to me, suggests that R now for some reason is "mis-matched"
or whatever
> you want to call it with the way my computer uses (encodes?) its characters
> in other programmes.
Not 'other programmes', just Word.
> I am sure there is an easy way to correct this in some setting, but despite
> an hour's search on the net and elsewhere, I am no closer to solving
the
> problem.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice!
>
> Dennis
>
> -- 
>
> Dennis Hansen, PhD
>
> Postdoctoral Scholar
> Department of Biology
> 371 Serra Mall, Gilbert Building, Room 109
> Stanford University
> Stanford, CA 94305-5020
> USA
> -----------------------
> ?Everything that shouldn?t be done to an island has been done to Mauritius.
> Except, perhaps, nuclear testing? ?Richard Lewis
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org 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.
>
-- 
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