CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rconsolesink
Ash Reddy
Ash Reddy

Reputation: 1042

Message function in R not writing to text file / print message to stdout

I'm writing some text to R console using print(), cat() and message() functions. I wish to collect console outputs into a text file, so I sandwiched the code between a pair of sink() functions. Final code looks like:

sink("output_filename.txt") 
print("some text with print function")
cat("some text with cat function")
message("some text with message function")
sink()

When I run this code, print and cat work as expected while message's output writes to console and not output text file. Why does this happen and how do I work around this? I prefer not to replace message function with alternatives.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2026

Answers (1)

mischva11
mischva11

Reputation: 2956

like jogo already mentioned in the commentary, message() sends to stdeer, instead of stdout. You can change this by using sink(stdout(), type = "message")

sink("output_filename.txt") 
sink(stdout(), type = "message")
print("some text with print function")
cat("some text with cat function\n")
message("some text with message function")
sink()

from documentary of sink():

Normal R output (to connection stdout) is diverted by the default type = "output". Only prompts and (most) messages continue to appear on the console. Messages sent to stderr() (including those from message, warning and stop) can be diverted by sink(type = "message") (see below).

also you might change it back after you are done, since warnings and stops are also changed to stdout this way

Upvotes: 2

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