print_linter: Block usage of print() for logging

In lintr: A 'Linter' for R Code

Block usage of print() for logging

Description

The default print method for character vectors is appropriate for interactively inspecting objects, not for logging messages. Thus checked-in usage like print(paste('Data has', nrow(DF), 'rows.')) is better served by using cat(), e.g. cat(sprintf('Data has %d rows.\n', nrow(DF))) (noting that using cat() entails supplying your own line returns, and that glue::glue() might be preferable to sprintf() for constructing templated strings). Lastly, note that message() differs slightly from cat() in that it prints to stderr by default, not stdout, but is still a good option to consider for logging purposes.

Usage

print_linter()

Tags

best_practices, consistency

See Also

linters for a complete list of linters available in lintr.

Examples

# will produce lints
lint(
  text = "print('a')",
  linters = print_linter()
)

lint(
  text = "print(paste(x, 'y'))",
  linters = print_linter()
)

# okay
lint(
  text = "print(x)",
  linters = print_linter()
)

lintr documentation built on April 12, 2025, 1:42 a.m.