prompt {utils} | R Documentation |
Facilitate the constructing of files documenting R objects.
prompt(object, filename = NULL, name = NULL, ...) ## Default S3 method: prompt(object, filename = NULL, name = NULL, force.function = FALSE, ...) ## S3 method for class 'data.frame': prompt(object, filename = NULL, name = NULL, ...)
object |
an R object, typically a function for the default method. |
filename |
usually, a connection or a character string giving the
name of the file to which the documentation shell should be written.
The default corresponds to a file whose name is name followed
by ".Rd" . Can also be NA (see below). |
name |
a character string specifying the name of the object. |
force.function |
a logical. If TRUE , treat object
as function in any case. |
... |
further arguments passed to or from other methods. |
Unless filename
is NA
, a documentation shell for
object
is written to the file specified by filename
, and
a message about this is given. For function objects, this shell
contains the proper function and argument names. R documentation
files thus created still need to be edited and moved into the
‘man’ subdirectory of the package containing the object to be
documented.
If filename
is NA
, a list-style representation of the
documentation shell is created and returned. Writing the shell to a
file amounts to cat(unlist(x), file = filename, sep = "\n")
,
where x
is the list-style representation.
When prompt
is used in for
loops or scripts, the
explicit name
specification will be useful.
If filename
is NA
, a list-style representation of the
documentation shell. Otherwise, the name of the file written to is
returned invisibly.
The default filename may not be a valid filename under limited file systems (e.g. those on Windows).
Currently, calling prompt
on a non-function object assumes that
the object is in fact a data set and hence documents it as such. This
may change in future versions of R. Use promptData
to
create documentation skeletons for data sets.
The documentation file produced by prompt.data.frame
does not
have the same format as many of the data frame documentation files in
the base package. We are trying to settle on a preferred
format for the documentation.
Douglas Bates for prompt.data.frame
Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.
promptData
, help
and the chapter on
“Writing R documentation” in “Writing R Extensions”
(see the ‘doc/manual’ subdirectory of the R source tree).
To prompt the user for input, see readline
.
require(graphics) prompt(plot.default) prompt(interactive, force.function = TRUE) unlink("plot.default.Rd") unlink("interactive.Rd") prompt(women) # data.frame unlink("women.Rd") prompt(sunspots) # non-data.frame data unlink("sunspots.Rd")