The R Project SVN R

\name{deparse}
\alias{deparse}
\title{Expression Deparsing}
\description{
  Turn unevaluated expressions into character strings.
}
\usage{
deparse(expr, width.cutoff = 60,
        backtick = mode(expr) \%in\% c("call", "expression", "("))
}
\arguments{
  \item{expr}{any \R expression.}
  \item{width.cutoff}{integer in \eqn{[20, 500]} determining the cutoff
    at which line-breaking is tried.}
  \item{backtick}{logical indicating whether symbolic names should be
    enclosed in backticks if they don't follow the standard syntax.}
}
\details{
  This function turns unevaluated expressions (where \dQuote{expression}
  is taken in a wider sense than the strict concept of a vector of mode
  \code{"expression"} used in \code{\link{expression}}) into character
  strings (a kind of inverse \code{\link{parse}}).

  A typical use of this is to create informative labels for data sets
  and plots.  The example shows a simple use of this facility.  It uses
  the functions \code{deparse} and \code{substitute} to create labels
  for a plot which are character string versions of the actual arguments
  to the function \code{myplot}.

  The default for the \code{backtick} option is not to quote single
  symbols but only composite expressions. This is a compromise to
  avoid breaking existing code.

}
\references{
  Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988)
  \emph{The New S Language}.
  Wadsworth \& Brooks/Cole.
}
\seealso{
  \code{\link{substitute}},
  \code{\link{parse}},
  \code{\link{expression}}.
}
\examples{
deparse(args(lm))
deparse(args(lm), width = 500)
myplot <-
function(x, y)
    plot(x, y, xlab=deparse(substitute(x)),
        ylab=deparse(substitute(y)))
}
e <- quote(`foo bar`)
deparse(e)
deparse(e, backtick=TRUE)
e <- quote(`foo bar`+1)
deparse(e)
\keyword{programming}
\keyword{manip}
\keyword{data}