R/scat.R

In gtools: Various R Programming Tools

#' Display debugging text
#'
#' If \code{getOption('DEBUG')==TRUE}, write text to STDOUT and flush so that
#' the text is immediately displayed. Otherwise, do nothing.
#'
#'
#' @param \dots Arguments passed to \code{cat}
#' @return NULL (invisibly)
#' @author Gregory R. Warnes \email{greg@@warnes.net}
#' @seealso \code{\link[base]{cat}}
#' @keywords print
#' @examples
#'
#' options(DEBUG = NULL) # makee sure DEBUG isn't set
#' scat("Not displayed")
#'
#' options(DEBUG = TRUE)
#' scat("This will be displayed immediately (even in R BATCH output \n")
#' scat("files), provided options()$DEBUG is TRUE.")
#' @export
scat <- function(...) {
  DEBUG <- options()$DEBUG
  if (!is.null(DEBUG) && DEBUG) {
    cat("### ", file = stderr())
    cat(..., file = stderr())
    cat(" ###\n", file = stderr())
    flush(stderr())
  }
  invisible(NULL)
}