it would probably be faster if you can be as specific as possible... in the help that has been provided, it is looking everywhere in c:/
you could narrow that down a bit and save it from looking too deep in your system. dir("C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop", pattern="foo.pdf", full.names=T, ignore.case=T, recursive=T) **I'm not 100% about this, but it seems logical to me William Dunlap wrote: > > Try using normalizePath("foo.pdf") after creating > the file. It should return an absolute path to > an existing file. > > Bill Dunlap > Spotfire, TIBCO Software > wdunlap tibco.com > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: r-help-boun...@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-boun...@r-project.org] >> On Behalf Of Tyler Rinker >> Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 12:43 PM >> To: jvad...@usgs.gov >> Cc: r-help@r-project.org >> Subject: Re: [R] Construct a File Path: File Path Unknown >> >> >> Jean, Thank you. It's slow but it works. dir("C:/", >> pattern="plotrix.pdf", full.names=T, >> ignore.case=T, recursive=T) Does anyone have a faster way? If it helps >> using: >> shell.exec("search-ms://query=plotrix.pdf") utilizes windows's search >> bar to find the file (this is >> quick), however it opens a screen that finds the file rather than >> providing me with the search path. >> For a look at what that looks like on a windows machine click here: >> http://windows.microsoft.com/en- >> US/windows7/products/features/windows-search I'm thinking there's a way >> to use this method to extract >> the path even faster than dir(). TylerTo: tyler_rin...@hotmail.com >> CC: r-help@r-project.org >> Subject: Re: [R] Construct a File Path: File Path Unknown >> From: jvad...@usgs.gov >> Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:19:37 -0500 >> >> >> >> Try the dir() function. >> >> >> >> ?dir >> >> >> >> # for example >> >> dir("c:/", pattern="foo.pdf", >> full.names=T, ignore.case=T, recursive=T) >> >> >> >> Jean >> >> >> >> >> >> Tyler Rinker wrote on 08/25/2011 11:54:28 AM: >> >> > >> >> > I am not a programmer and am self-taught so I may lack the >> >> > language to ask this appropriately (perhaps why an rseek search was >> >> >> > unfruitful). >> >> > >> >> > Let's say I saved a file to my desktop called foo.pdf. Then >> I want >> >> > R to return the file path of >> >> > foo.pdf (pretend I don't know the location(path) of foo.pdf). >> >> > >> >> > Question: How would I get R to return the unknown file path for >> >> > foo.pdf. >> >> > >> >> > I hypothesize that the find find.package() function code contains >> >> > the secret for doing this but am unable to parse out the snippet to >> do so. >> >> > >> >> > I attempted file.path("foo.pdf") >> >> > >> >> > which R returns [1] "foo.pdf" #not what I want >> >> > >> >> > =========================================== >> >> > >> >> > R version 2.14 beta >> >> > >> >> > Windows 7 >> >> > >> >> > Reproducible code is not appropriate for this query >> >> > >> >> > ______________________________________________ >> >> > R-help@r-project.org mailing list >> >> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >> >> > PLEASE do read the posting guide >> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >> >> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >> >> >> [[alternative HTML version deleted]] >> >> ______________________________________________ >> R-help@r-project.org mailing list >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >> PLEASE do read the posting guide >> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > -- View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Construct-a-File-Path-File-Path-Unknown-tp3768821p3769392.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.