fstrings
Python style f-strings for R. Small, fast, dependency free interpreted string literals.
Installation
# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("jimhester/fstrings")
Usage
Long strings can be broken by line and will be concatenated together
name <- "Fred"
age <- 50
anniversary <- as.Date("1991-10-12")
f('My name is {name},',
' my age next year is {age + 1},',
' my anniversary is {format(anniversary, "%A, %B %d, %Y")}.')
#> [1] "My name is Fred, my age next year is 51, my anniversary is Saturday, October 12, 1991."
You can use named arguments to assign temporary variables
f('My name is {name},',
' my age next year is {age + 1},',
' my anniversary is {format(anniversary, "%A, %B %d, %Y")}.',
name = "Joe",
age = 40,
anniversary = as.Date("2001-10-12"))
#> [1] "My name is Joe, my age next year is 41, my anniversary is Friday, October 12, 2001."
The f_
variant is useful in magrittr pipes
library(magrittr)
mtcars %>% f_("{rownames(.)} has {hp} hp")
#> [1] "Mazda RX4 has 110 hp" "Mazda RX4 Wag has 110 hp"
#> [3] "Datsun 710 has 93 hp" "Hornet 4 Drive has 110 hp"
#> [5] "Hornet Sportabout has 175 hp" "Valiant has 105 hp"
#> [7] "Duster 360 has 245 hp" "Merc 240D has 62 hp"
#> [9] "Merc 230 has 95 hp" "Merc 280 has 123 hp"
#> [11] "Merc 280C has 123 hp" "Merc 450SE has 180 hp"
#> [13] "Merc 450SL has 180 hp" "Merc 450SLC has 180 hp"
#> [15] "Cadillac Fleetwood has 205 hp" "Lincoln Continental has 215 hp"
#> [17] "Chrysler Imperial has 230 hp" "Fiat 128 has 66 hp"
#> [19] "Honda Civic has 52 hp" "Toyota Corolla has 65 hp"
#> [21] "Toyota Corona has 97 hp" "Dodge Challenger has 150 hp"
#> [23] "AMC Javelin has 150 hp" "Camaro Z28 has 245 hp"
#> [25] "Pontiac Firebird has 175 hp" "Fiat X1-9 has 66 hp"
#> [27] "Porsche 914-2 has 91 hp" "Lotus Europa has 113 hp"
#> [29] "Ford Pantera L has 264 hp" "Ferrari Dino has 175 hp"
#> [31] "Maserati Bora has 335 hp" "Volvo 142E has 109 hp"
Leading whitespace and blank lines are automatically trimmed, which lets you indent the strings naturally.
fun <- function() {
cat(f("
A Formatted string
Can have multiple lines
with additional indention preserved
"))
}
fun()
#> A Formatted string
#> Can have multiple lines
#> with additional indention preserved
A literal brace can be inserted by using doubled braces.
name <- "Fred"
f("My name is {name}, not {{name}}.")
#> [1] "My name is Fred, not {name}."
All valid R code works in expressions, including braces and escaping. Backslashes do need to be doubled just like in all R strings.
`foo}\`` <- "foo"
f("{
{
'}\\'' # { and } in comments, single quotes
\"}\\\"\" # or double quotes are ignored
`foo}\\`` # as are { in backticks
}
}")
#> [1] "foo"
Other implementations
Some other implementations of string interpolation in R (although not using the f-string syntax).