cat {base} | R Documentation

## Concatenate and Print

### Description

Prints the arguments, coercing them if necessary to character mode first.

### Usage

    cat(... , file = "", sep = " ", fill = FALSE, labels = NULL,
        append = FALSE)

### Arguments

`...` | R objects which are coerced to character strings, concatenated, and printed, with the remaining arguments controlling the output.
`file` | A connection, or a character string naming the file to print to. If `""` (the default), `cat` prints to the standard output connection, the console unless redirected by `sink`. If it is `"|cmd"`, the output is piped to the command given by ‘`cmd`’, by opening a pipe connection.
`sep` | character string to insert between the objects to print.
`fill` | a logical or numeric controlling how the output is broken into successive lines. If `FALSE` (default), only newlines created explicitly by `\n` are printed. Otherwise, the output is broken into lines with print width equal to the option `width` if `fill` is `TRUE`, or the value of `fill` if this is numeric.
`labels` | character vector of labels for the lines printed. Ignored if `fill` is `FALSE`.
`append` | logical. Only used if the argument `file` is the name of file (and not a connection or `"|cmd"`). If `TRUE` output will be appended to `file`; otherwise, it will overwrite the contents of `file`.

### Details

`cat` converts its arguments to character strings, concatenates them, separating them by the given `sep=` string, and then prints them.

No linefeeds are printed unless explicitly requested by `\n` or if generated by filling (if argument `fill` is `TRUE` or numeric.)

`cat` is useful for producing output in user-defined functions.

### Value

None (invisible `NULL`).

### References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

### See Also

`print`, `format`, and `paste` which concatenates into a string.

### Examples

    iter <- rpois(1, lambda=10)
    ## print an informative message
    cat("iteration = ", iter <- iter + 1, "\n")

    ## 'fill' and label lines:
    cat(paste(letters, 100* 1:26), fill = TRUE,
        labels = paste("{",1:10,"}:",sep=""))

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