R help - Feb 2015 - find a previous command that starts with a certain letter

Hi,

I'm new to R (was using Matlab previously)

Matlab has a very convenient utility that I haven't been able to find in R.
When working interactively, you can find a previous command that starts with a
certain letter by typing such a letter and then pressing the cursor up key. In R
I've seen that, despite the letter you type, when pressing the cursor up
key, it goes to the immediately previous command.

So, do you know if there is any way in R to quickly search for previous commands
starting with a certain letter?

 

Thanks!!

Merc?

 


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"CasasPrat,Merce [Ontario]" <Merce.CasasPrat at ec.gc.ca>
writes:
> Hi,
>
> I'm new to R (was using Matlab previously)
>
> Matlab has a very convenient utility that I haven't been able to find
> in R. When working interactively, you can find a previous command that
> starts with a certain letter by typing such a letter and then pressing
> the cursor up key. In R I've seen that, despite the letter you type,
> when pressing the cursor up key, it goes to the immediately previous
> command.
>
> So, do you know if there is any way in R to quickly search for
> previous commands starting with a certain letter?
>
>  
>
> Thanks!!
>
> Merce
You should be able to do

Ctrl-r

(for "reverse search") and then type any part of the command you want.
You can then also do

Ctrl-s

(for "search") to search in the other direction (i.e. towards more
recently entered commands).

These are all functions of the "readline" library, which is also used
in
many other programs (such as the "bash" shell).

Cheers,

Loris

-- 
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On 18/02/2015 5:06 PM, CasasPrat,Merce [Ontario] wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm new to R (was using Matlab previously)
> 
> Matlab has a very convenient utility that I haven't been able to find
in R. When working interactively, you can find a previous command that starts
with a certain letter by typing such a letter and then pressing the cursor up
key. In R I've seen that, despite the letter you type, when pressing the
cursor up key, it goes to the immediately previous command.
> 
> So, do you know if there is any way in R to quickly search for previous
commands starting with a certain letter?
This depends on what front end you are using.  In the Windows Rgui.exe,
you get what you saw.  In front-ends using readline, you can do it by
hitting Ctrl-R first.  (The Windows command-line interface, Rterm.exe,
uses this, as do many others.)  If you're using some other front-end,
you'll need to read its documentation.

Duncan Murdoch