Rcmdr.Utilities: Rcmdr Utility Functions

In Rcmdr: R Commander

Rcmdr Utility Functions

Description

Funtions to support additions to the Rcmdr.

These functions support writing additions to the Rcmdr package, preferably by writing an Rcmdr plug-in package. Although it is not recommended, additional R code can also be placed in files with file type .R in the etc subdirectory of the Rcmdr package. In this case, you can add menus, submenus, and menu items by editing the file Rcmdr-menus.txt in the same directory.

listVariables retrieves the variable names from the specified dataSet or from the active data set.

If called without arguments, the function returns the names of the variables in the active data set.

If the dataSet argument is provided, the function returns the variable names associated with that specific data set.

listPositiveVariables is a specialized version of listVariables that works only with variables containing only positive values.

radioButtons creates a group of radio buttons within a Tk dialog, allowing the user to select a single option from a predefined list.

This function generates a set of related radio buttons. It supports "dialog memory," meaning it can retain and restore the user's previous selections across different invocations of the same dialog.

Variables retrieves the variable names from the active data set or stores a new set of names.

If called without arguments, the function returns the names of the variables in the active data set.

If the names argument is provided, the function stores these as the current variable names for the active session.

NumericPositive retrieves or stores the names of variables containing only positive values in the active data set.

This function is a specialized version of Variables designed specifically to work with positive-valued variables.

numericPositiveP is a specialized version of numericP that checks if a variable is both numeric and contains strictly positive values.

varPosn returns the indices of specific variables within the active data set, filtered by type and sorted alphabetically.

varPosn supports "dialog-box memory" (i.e., retaining selections across successive invocations of a dialog).

Usage

activateMenus()
activeDataSet(dsname, flushModel=TRUE, flushDialogMemory=TRUE)
ActiveDataSet(name)
activeDataSetP()
activeModel(model)
ActiveModel(name)
activeModelP()
anovaP()
beginRmdBlock()
beginRnwBlock()
Character(names)
characterP(n=1)
checkActiveDataSet()
checkActiveModel()
checkBoxes(window=top, frame=stop("frame not supplied"),
    boxes=stop("boxes not supplied"),
    initialValues=NULL, labels=stop("labels not supplied"),
    title=NULL, ttk=FALSE, columns=1)  # macro
checkClass(object, class, message=NULL)  # macro
checkFactors(n=1)
checkMethod(generic, object, message=NULL, default=FALSE, strict=FALSE,
    reportError=TRUE)  # macro
checkNumeric(n=1)
checkReplace(name, type=gettextRcmdr("Variable"))
checkTwoLevelFactors(n=1)
checkVariables(n=1)
closeCommander(ask=TRUE, ask.save=ask)
closeDialog(window, release=TRUE)  # macro
Coef(object, ...)
Predictors(type=c("all", "numeric", "factor"))
PredictorsP(n=1, type=c("all", "numeric", "factor"))
CommanderWindow()
dataSetsP(n=1)
defmacro(..., expr)
dialogSuffix(window=top, onOK=onOK, onCancel=onCancel, rows, columns,
	focus=top, bindReturn=TRUE,
    preventGrabFocus=FALSE, preventDoubleClick=FALSE, preventCrisp,
    use.tabs=FALSE, notebook=notebook, tabs=c("dataTab", "optionsTab"),
    tab.names=c("Data", "Options"), grid.buttons=FALSE, resizable=FALSE,
    force.wait=FALSE)  # macro
DiscreteNumeric(names)
discreteNumericP(n=1)
doItAndPrint(command, log=TRUE, rmd=log)
EffectP()
endRmdBlock()
endRnwBlock()
enterMarkdown(command)
enterKnitr(command)
errorCondition(window=top, recall=NULL, message, model=FALSE)  # macro
exists.method(generic, object, default=TRUE, strict=FALSE)
Factors(names)
factorsP(n=1)
formulaFields(model, hasLhs=TRUE, glm=FALSE)
flushDialogMemory(what)
gassign(x, value)
getCases(cases, remove=TRUE)
getDialog(dialog, defaults=NULL)
## S3 method for class 'combobox'
getFrame(object)
## S3 method for class 'listbox'
getFrame(object)
## S3 method for class 'combobox'
getSelection(object)
## S3 method for class 'listbox'
getSelection(object)
getRcmdr(x, mode="any", fail=TRUE)
gettextRcmdr(...)
glmP()
GrabFocus(value)
groupsBox(recall=NULL, label=gettextRcmdr("Plot by:"),
    initialLabel=gettextRcmdr("Plot by groups"),
    errorText=gettextRcmdr("There are no factors in the active data set."),
    variables=Factors(),
    plotLinesByGroup=FALSE, positionLegend=FALSE,
    plotLinesByGroupsText=gettextRcmdr("Plot lines by group"),
    initialGroup=NULL, initialLinesByGroup=1, window=top)  # macro
groupsLabel(frame=top, groupsBox=groupsBox, columnspan=1,
    initialText=NULL, ratio=FALSE)  # macro
hclustSolutionsP()
initializeDialog(window=top, title="", offset=10, preventCrisp,
    use.tabs=FALSE, notebook=notebook,
    tabs=c("dataTab", "optionsTab"),
    suppress.window.resize.buttons=TRUE)  # macro
insertRmdSection(text)
is.valid.name(x)
is.valid.number(string)
is.SciViews()
justDoIt(command)
knitrP()
Library(package, pos=length(search()), rmd=TRUE)
listAllModels(envir=.GlobalEnv, ...)
listAOVModels(envir=.GlobalEnv, ...)
listCharacter(dataSet=ActiveDataSet())
listDataSets(envir=.GlobalEnv, ...)
listDiscreteNumeric(dataSet=ActiveDataSet())
listFactors(dataSet=ActiveDataSet())
listGeneralizedLinearModels(envir=.GlobalEnv, ...)
listLinearModels(envir=.GlobalEnv, ...)
listMultinomialLogitModels(envir=.GlobalEnv, ...)
listNumeric(dataSet=ActiveDataSet())
listProportionalOddsModels(envir=.GlobalEnv, ...)
listTwoLevelFactors(dataSet=ActiveDataSet())
listVariables(dataSet=ActiveDataSet())
lmP()
logger(command, rmd=TRUE)
logLikP()
LogWindow()
MacOSXP(release)
manualTranslationP()
MarkdownP()
mavericksP()
Message(message, type=c("note", "error", "warning"))
MessagesWindow()
modelCapability(capability)
modelFormula(frame=top, hasLhs=TRUE, rhsExtras=NULL,
    formulaLabel=gettextRcmdr("Model Formula"), showBar=FALSE)  # macro
modelsP(n=1)
multinomP()
Numeric(names)
numericP(n=1)
OKCancelHelp(window=top, helpSubject=NULL, model=FALSE,
    reset=NULL, apply=NULL, helpPackage=NULL)  # macro
OutputWindow()
packageAvailable(name)
polrP()
popCommand(keep=FALSE)
popOutput(keep=FALSE)
putDialog(dialog, values=NULL, resettable=TRUE)
putRcmdr(x, value)
RappP()
RcmdrEditor(buffer, title="R Commander Editor", ok,
    help=NULL, file.menu=NULL, edit.menu=NULL, context.menu=NULL,
    toolbar.buttons=NULL)
RcmdrTclSet(name, value)
RcmdrTkmessageBox(message, icon=c("info", "question", "warning",
    "error"), type=c("okcancel", "yesno", "ok"), default, title="")
removeLastRmdBlock()
removeLastRnwBlock()
removeNullRmdBlocks()
removeNullRnwBlocks()
removeStrayRmdBlocks()
removeStrayRnwBlocks()
RExcelSupported()
rglLoaded()
RmdWindow()
RnwWindow()
setBusyCursor()
setIdleCursor()
sortVarNames(x)
subOKCancelHelp(window=subdialog, helpSubject=NULL)  # macro
subsetBox(window = top, subset.expression = NULL, model = FALSE)  # macro
suppressMarkdown(command)
tclvalue(x)
titleLabel(...)
tkspinbox(parent, ...)
trim.blanks(text)
TwoLevelFactors(names)
twoLevelFactorsP(n=1)
UpdateModelNumber(increment=1)
variableComboBox(parentWindow, variableList=Variables(),
    export="FALSE", state="readonly",
    initialSelection=gettextRcmdr(nullSelection),
    title="", nullSelection="<no variable selected>",
    adjustWidth = FALSE)
variableListBox(parentWindow, variableList=Variables(), bg="white",
    selectmode="single", export="FALSE", initialSelection=NULL,
    listHeight=getRcmdr("variable.list.height"), title)
Variables(names)
WindowsP()
X11P()
commanderPosition()

listVariables(dataSet = ActiveDataSet())

listNumericPositive(dataSet = ActiveDataSet())

radioButtons(
  window = top,
  name = stop("name not supplied"),
  buttons = stop("buttons not supplied"),
  values = NULL,
  initialValue = ..values[1],
  labels = stop("labels not supplied"),
  title = "",
  title.color = getRcmdr("title.color"),
  right.buttons = FALSE,
  command = function() {
 },
  columns = 1
)

Variables(names)

NumericPositive(names)

numericPositiveP(n = 1)

varPosn(
  variables,
  type = c("all", "factor", "numeric", "numericpositive", "nonfactor", "twoLevelFactor"),
  vars = NULL
)

Arguments

dataSet	An optional character string specifying the name of a data set. If omitted, the function defaults to the active data set.
window	A Tk window object serving as the parent container.
name	A character string providing the base name for the widget.
buttons	A character vector of names for the individual radio buttons in the set.
values	A character vector of values associated with each radio button. For putDialog, this should be a list of current selections to be stored in the dialog's memory.
initialValue	The value of the radio button that should be selected by default.
labels	A character vector of strings to be used as labels for the radio buttons.
title	A character string for the title of the radio button group.
title.color	The color of the title text; defaults to "blue".
right.buttons	Logical; if TRUE, the buttons are placed to the right of their labels. Defaults to FALSE.
command	A character string that evaluates to an R command, or a function to be executed when a button is selected.
columns	An integer (1, 2, 3, or 4) specifying the number of columns used to arrange the buttons. Buttons are filled by rows; defaults to 1.
names	An optional character vector of variable names to be stored. If omitted, the function defaults to retrieval mode.
n	number of items to check for.
variables	A character vector containing one or more variable names.
type	A character string specifying the type of object to check. Used to filter the variable list for varPosn.
vars	A character vector of variable names. If provided, the type argument is ignored.
adjustWidth	adjust width of combo box to accommodate widest entry (default FALSE).
ask	ask for confirmation.
ask.save	ask whether to save contents of script and output windows.
apply	if non-null (the default is NULL), an Apply button is included in the dialog's button bar. This argument should be set to the quoted name of the function that initiates the dialog; when the button is pressed, the onOK function for the dialog is executed, and then the function named in apply is (re)called.
bg	background color.
bindReturn	if TRUE, the Return key is bound to the onOK function in the dialog.
boxes	vector of quoted names for check boxes, used to generate each box and its associated variable.
buffer	a text string, typically representing the contents of a text widget, such as an R Markdown or knitr document.
capability	character string giving the name of a column in the R Commander model-capabilities table, including the name of a column added by a plug-in; see model-capabilities.txt in the Rcmdr sources for the standard table; e.g., "sum" indicates the availability of an applicable summary() method for the current model.
cases	a character string of case number or names to be removed or retained, separated by blanks.
class	quoted name of class.
columnspan	number of dialog-box columns to be spanned by frame.
context.menu	NULL or a list containing one or more two-element lists: the first element, label, supplies the text label for a menu item in the RcmdrEditor right-click context menu; the second element, command, is a call-back function to be evaluated when the menu item is selected. If NULL (the default), no item will be added to the file menu.
default	default button: if not specified, "ok" for "okcancel", "yes" for "yesno", and "ok" for "ok"; or look for a default method; for putDialog, a list of defaults for the dialog box if there are no stored previous values.
defaults	a list of named default values for options in a dialog if no previous selections are stored.
dialog	the quoted name of a dialog box under which previous selections are stored.
dsname	name of the data set to activate.
edit.menu	NULL or a list containing one or more two-element lists: the first element, label, supplies the text label for a menu item in the RcmdrEditor Edit menu; the second element, command, is a call-back function to be evaluated when the menu item is selected. If NULL (the default), no item will be added to the file menu.
envir	the environment to be searched; should generally be left at the default.
errorText	error message to print if a suitable factor isn't available.
export	export selection?
expr	An expression constituting the body of the macro; typically a compound expression.
fail	if TRUE, the default, getRcmdr will generate an error if the object sought doesn't exist; if FALSE and the object doesn't exist, NULL is returned.
file.menu	NULL or a list containing one or more two-element lists: the first element, label, supplies the text label for a menu item in the RcmdrEditor File menu; the second element, command, is a call-back function to be evaluated when the menu item is selected. If NULL (the default), no item will be added to the file menu.
flushDialogMemory	remove saved values of dialog options so that getDialog returns NULL for all dialogs.
flushModel	set (or reset) the active model to NULL? Should normally be TRUE when the active data set is changed; an exception is when variables are simply added to, deleted from, or modified in the data set set.
focus	Tk window to get the focus.
force.wait	call tkwait.window so that processing is suspended until the dialog is closed; overrides the Rcmdr tkwait.dialog option (see Commander) if the latter is set to FALSE (its default). The force.wait argument should be set to TRUE for subdialogs.
formulaLabel	text label printed above the formula widget.
frame	frame or quoted name for frame depending upon the function.
generic	quoted name of generic function.
glm	TRUE if the model is a glm object, FALSE otherwise.
grid.buttons	insert call to tkgrid for the buttons frame (default FALSE); use TRUE for tabbed dialogs and optionally for other dialogs.
groupsBox	listbox object for selecting groups variable.
initialText	initial text to display in the groups label; if NULL, "<No groups selected>" will be displayed.
hasLhs	does the model formula have a left-hand side?
help	a two element list: the first element, label, supplies the text label for a menu item in the RcmdrEditor Help menu; the second element, command, is a call-back function to be evaluated when the menu item is selected. If NULL (the default), no item will be added to the editor Help menu.
helpSubject	the quoted name of a help subject, to be called as help(helpSubject) when the dialog Help button is pressed.
helpPackage	the quoted name of the package in which to look for help; the default, NULL, produces a search in all loaded packages — see help.
icon	Message-box icon.
increment	increment to model number; -1 to set back after error.
initialGroup	quoted name of variable to define groups, set as initial selection in Groups variable list; NULL (the default) for no initial selection.
initialLinesByGroup	if 1, the lines-by-groups check box is initially checked; 0 to uncheck.
initialLabel	label for groups button before a selection is made.
initialSelection	index of item initially selected, 0-base indexing.
initialValues	for a set of related check boxes.
keep	if TRUE, keep (rather than pop) last output or command in the stack; the default is FALSE.
label	label prefix for groups button after a selection is made.
listHeight	Maximum number of elements displayed simultaneously in list box.
log	echo command to the script window, as well as executing it and printing its output.
message	error (or other) message.
mode	mode of object to retrieve.
model	the name of a model, as a character string, or a model object, or TRUE or FALSE, depending upon the function.
notebook	notebook windows for a tabbed dialog (default notebook).
nullSelection	what user selects in combo box to indicate nothing selected (default "<no variable selected>").
object	an object (depends on context).
offset	in pixels, from top-left of Commander window.
ok	a function called when the OK button is pressed in a RcmdrEditor window that saves the editor buffer to the appropriate Tcl variable.
onOK	function to execute when the OK button is pressed.
onCancel	function to execute when the Cancel button or Esc key is pressed.
package	quoted name of package to load.
parent	A Tk window object serving as the parent container.
parentWindow	A Tk window object serving as the parent container.
plotLinesByGroup	include a check box for plotting lines by group?
plotLinesByGroupsText	the label for the plot-lines-by-group check box.
pos	position on search path at which to load package; default is just before the end of the path.
positionLegend	include a check box for a legend?
preventGrabFocus	prevent the dialog box from grabbing the focus.
preventDoubleClick	prevent double-clicking from pressing the OK button, even when the double.click option is set; necessary for statistical modelling dialogs, which use double-clicking to build the model formula.
preventCrisp	this argument is ignored, and is present only for backwards compatibility.
ratio	If FALSE, the default, the test will be expressed as a test for a difference (e.g., a difference in means); if TRUE, as a test for a ratio (e.g., a ratio of variances).
recall	function to call after error — usually the function that initiates the dialog.
release	release the focus if the grab.focus option has been set. In MacOSXP, the minimum release (version) required.
remove	If TRUE, the default, return a character string that evaluates to an expression of case numbers or names to remove from the data set; if FALSE, return a character string that evaluates for an expression of case numbers or names to retain.
reportError	if TRUE, report an error message.
reset	quoted name of dialog function, to be invoked with all defaults by Reset button.
resettable	should dialog state be reset when the data set changes? The default is TRUE.
resizable	should the dialog be resizable by the user? The default is FALSE.
rhsExtras	show controls for splines and polynomials for a model formula; for backwards compatibility, defaults to TRUE for a two-sided formula and FALSE for a one-sided formula.
rmd	enter the command in the R Markdown tab.
rows	numbers of rows of widgets in the dialog box; this is actually no longer used, but is still present for backwards compatibility. The columns argument is similarly ignored, except for radio buttons and check boxes.
selectmode	"single" or "multiple".
showBar	include a bar (|) button in the model-formula widget (default is FALSE).
state	state of the combobox widget; default "readonly" means user can't type in the box; set to "normal" to permit typing.
strict	if TRUE, only use first element of class vector.
string	a character string, or vector of strings, to be tested whether it can be coerced to a number or numbers; returns either TRUE or FALSE.
subset.expression	a quoted expression to subset the data set.
suppress.window.resize.buttons	if TRUE, the default, the window maximize/minimize buttons will not be displayed.
tab.names	text to print as tab labels (default c("Data", "Options")).
tabs	quoted names of tabs for a tabbed dialog (default c("dataTab", "optionsTab")).
text	a text string.
toolbar.buttons	NULL or a list containing one or more three-element lists: the first element, label, supplies the text label for a button in the RcmdrEditor toolbar; the second element, command, is a call-back function to be evaluated when the button is pressed; the third element is the name of a tk image to display as an icon in the button. If NULL (the default), no buttons will be added to the toolbar.
ttk	use ttk themed widget for check boxes.
use.tabs	(default FALSE) construct a tabbed dialog.
value	an object to be stored or assigned.
variableList	a vector of variable names.
what	optional character vector of one or more dialog names for which the memory is to be flushed; if not specified, all dialog memory will be flushed.
x	an R object name, as a character string, or a tcl variable or object, or a vector of variable names to be sorted.
...	For gettextRcmdr, text string or vector of text strings to translate; for titleLabel, arguments to be passed to labelRcmdr and from there to ttklabel; for defmacro, arguments for the macro; otherwise you should disregard this argument.

Details

There are several groups of functions exported by the Rcmdr package and documented briefly here. To see how these functions work, it is simplest to examine the dialog-generating functions in the Rcmdr package. Also see the RcmdrPlugin.survival package for examples.

This function filters the variables in the specified or active data set, returning only those that meet the positivity criterion.

While numericP only verifies the data type, numericPositiveP validates the actual content of the variable. It returns TRUE only if the variable meets both criteria: being numeric and having values strictly greater than zero.

Value

A character vector containing the names of the variables.

This function does not return a value. Instead, it creates a Tcl variable (named as nameVariable) that stores the user's selection.

If names is missing, returns a character vector of variable names. If names is provided, the function is used for its side effect of storing the names (typically returns NULL invisibly).

Returns TRUE if the condition is met, and FALSE otherwise.

A numeric vector representing the 0-indexed positions of the requested variables after filtering the data set by type and sorting alphabetically.

Executing and logging commands

The functions doItAndPrint, justDoIt, and logger control the execution, logging, and printing of commands generated by menus and dialogs. logger(command) adds command to the log/script window and to the output window. justDoIt(command) causes command to be executed. doItAndPrint(command) does both of these operations, and also prints the output produced by the command. The R Commander maintains a list of output objects, by default including the last 10 outputs. popOutput() “pops” (i.e., returns and removes) the first entry of the output stack. Note that, as a stack, the queue is LIFO (“last in, first out”). Use popOutput(keep=TRUE) to access the last output but keep it in the stack. There is also a stack of commands, which is accessed similarly by popCommand(). Ocassionally, it's necessary to assign an object directly in the global environment, and this can be done with the gassign function.

Normally commands also generate an R Markdown block. suppressMarkdown takes a command in character-string form and adds an attribute to it that will cause the command not to be entered in the R Markdown tab. This is useful when a command, such as identify, requires direct user interaction and won't generate useful Markdown. enterMarkdown can be used to enter command blocks directly in the R Markdown tab; this should rarely be required. The functions beginRmdBlock, endRmdBlock, removeNullRmdBlocks, removeLastRmdBlock, and removeStrayRmdBlocks should normally not be called directly. The functions enterKnitr, beginRnwBlock, endRnwBlock, removeNullRnwBlocks, removeLastRnwBlock, and removeStrayRnwBlocks perform similar functions for Knitr documents. insertRmdSection Inserts a Markdown section title immediately above the last R command block, with the specified text as the title. In most instances it's unnecessary to do this directly because most commands automatically generate a Markdown section title.

Checking for errors

The function is.valid.name checks whether a character string specifies a valid name for an R object. The function is.valid.number checks whether a character string (or vector) can be coerced to a number (or numbers). The functions checkActiveDataSet, checkActiveModel, checkFactors, checkNumeric, checkTwoLevelFactors, and checkVariables check for the existence of objects and write an error message to the log if they are absent (or insufficiently numerous, in the case of different kinds of variables). The function checkReplace opens a dialog to query whether an existing object should be replaced. The function checkMethod, checks whether a method exists for a particular generic that is appropriate for a particular object. The function checkClass checks whether an object is of a specific class. Both of these functions write error messages to the log if the condition fails. The function errorCondition reports an error to the user and (optionally) re-starts a dialog.

Information

Several functions return vectors of object names: listAllModels, listAOVModels, listCharacter, listDataSets, listDiscreteNumeric, listGeneralizedLinearModels, listFactors, listLinearModels, listMultinomialLogitModels, listNumeric, listProportionalOddsModels, listTwoLevelFactors, listVariables. The functions Predictors and Coefficients return information about the active model, or NULL if there is no active model. The functions activeDataSet and activeModel respectively report or set the active data set and model. The function packageAvailable reports whether the named package is available to be loaded (or has possibly already been loaded). The function exists.method checks whether a method exists for a particular generic that is appropriate for a particular object, and returns TRUE or FALSE. The function is.SciViews always returns FALSE since the SciViews GUI is no longer supported.

The function modelCapability() returns TRUE if there is an active statistical model and if it has the specified capability. For example, modelCapability("sum") returns TRUE if the model-capabilities table indicates that there's an applicable summary() method for the active model. Otherwise, FALSE is returned. If the specified capability doesn't exist, a warning is printed.

Building dialog boxes

Several functions simplify the process of constructing Tk dialogs: initializing a dialog box, initializeDialog, and completing the definition of a dialog box, dialogSuffix; a set of check boxes, checkBoxes; a set of radio buttons, radioButtons; a list box with associated scrollbars and state variable, variableListBox (and associated methods for the generic functions getFrame and getSelection); a drop-down "combo" box, variablecomboBox (with getFrame and getSelection methods); a button and subdialog for selecting a "grouping" variable, groupsBox; displaying the currently defined groups in a dialog, groupsLabel; a dialog-box structure for entering a model formula, modelFormula; a text box for entering a subsetting expression, subsetBox; OK, Cancel, and Help buttons for dialogs, OKCancelHelp, and subdialogs, subOKCancelHelp. The functions putDialog, getDialog, and varPosn support dialog-box memory—i.e., retaining selections across invocations of a dialog. The tkspinbox function is omitted from the tcltk package and may be used to create a spinbox widget. The titleLabel function may be used to format a title label to use the standard title label font and color.

“Themed” Tk widgets

Tk 8.5 introduced so-called “themed” widgets, which look better than the traditional Tk widgets. Several functions, contributed by Brian Ripley, are written to access the new widgets by switching automatically between the new and old widget sets depending upon the availability of the former: buttonRcmdr, to access either ttkbutton or tkbutton; labelRcmdr, to access either ttklabel or tklabel; ttkentry, to access either ttkentry or tkentry; ttkframe, to access either ttkframe or tkframe; ttkradiobutton, to access either ttkradiobutton or tkradiobutton; and ttkscrollbar, to access either ttkscrollbar or tkscrollbar. Note that the last four functions mask functions of the same names in the tcltk package.

“Predicate” functions

A number of functions of the form nameP are ‘predicate’ functions, which return TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether some condition obtains. For example, lmP() returns TRUE if there is an active model that is a linear model; and factorsP(2) returns TRUE if there are at least two factors in the active data set. WindowsP(), MacOSXP(), and X11P() return TRUE if the R Commander is running under Windows, Mac OS X, or X-Windows, consecutively.

Translating text

The gettextRcmdr function simply passes its argument(s) to gettext, adding the argument domain="R-Rcmdr". It is not meant to be used in plug-in packages.

Miscellaneous

The function trim.blanks removes spaces from the beginning and end of a character string.

The function installPlugin installs an Rcmdr plug-in from a ZIP file or directory; this function may be used to create self-installing plug-ins in the form of packages.

The function nobs returns the number of observations on which a statistical model is based.

The function formulaFields returns information about the left-hand side, right-hand side, data, subset, and (for GLMs) family and link, of a model object.

The function sortVarNames sorts variable names, including those containing numerals, into a more “natural” order than does the standard sort function.

The function Library may be used to load packages; it checks whether a package is already loaded, and if not by default puts it in position 4 on the search path.

The function Coef, with several methods, returns the coefficients of a model as a vector; the default method just calls coef.

The function RExcelSupported is used for the RExcel interface.

The function getCases takes a character string of case names or numbers as an argument and returns a character string that evaluates to an expression either to delete or retain these cases.

Some of these functions, marked # macro under Usage, are "macro-like" in their behaviour, in that they execute in the environment from which they are called. These were defined with an adaptation (used with permission) of Thomas Lumley's defmacro function, described in Lumley (2001), and are used in the R Commander to deal with scoping issues related to Tcl/Tk.

The tkfocus function is exported for historical reasons.

Author(s)

John Fox

References

T. Lumley (2001) Programmer's niche: Macros in R. R News, 1(3), 11–13.

Rcmdr documentation built on May 3, 2026, 9:06 a.m.