| 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).
For creation of many help pages (for a package),
see package.skeleton.
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")