[R] redirect plot device automatically

[Prof Brian Ripley]

This seems rather complicated.  From ?png note that just using

png("myoutput%03d.png")

will cause each subsequent graphics page to generate a separate PNG file.
(It 'redirects' as asked for, not copies from the screen.)

On Thu, 3 Jan 2008, jim holtman wrote:

> I have used a function like this to capture the output on the terminal
> to a file:
>
> f.plot <- local({   # this will make PlotNumber 'local' (private)
>    PlotNumber <- 1 # initialize the plot number (known just to this function)
>    return(function(){ # returns the 'function' as the result
>      dev.copy(win.metafile,
>      file=fileName <- sprintf("%sws.%03d.wmf", RWS_TEMP, PlotNumber),
>         # ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>         # the fileName uses RWS_TEMP to determine where to store the plots
>        width=10, height=7)
>      cat(fileName, "\n")      PlotNumber <<- PlotNumber + 1  #
> increment for next plot
>      invisible(dev.off())  # close the file and don't print return value
>    })
> })
>
> This creates a function 'f.plot' that is used as follows: anytime that
> I have created a plot, I just call f.plot to make a copy.  It
> increments the file name automatically:
>
> plot(Time, User, main='plot(Time, User)')  # default is 'points'
> f.plot()
> plot(Time, User, type="l",
>    main='plot(Time, User, type="l")')  # line plot
> f.plot()
>
>
> I assume that I will work for 'png' files.  If you don't want output
> created, just do
>
> f.plot <- function() invisible(NULL)
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jan 3, 2008 7:47 PM, Milton Cezar Ribeiro <milton_ruser at yahoo.com.br> wrote:
>> Dear all,
>>
>> Every time that I need to generate I plot output as figure I use something like
>>
>> png("myoutput.png")
>> plot(rnorm(100)*1.0,col=4)
>> points(rnorm(100)*0.5,col=2,pch=0)
>> dev.off()
>>
>> But now I need to generate a lot of outputs and it could not be done in 
>> a for looping where I can change the names. So I would like to know if 
>> is there a way of I automatically redirect the output from my screen to 
>> a png file, and the name of the generated files follow a prefix and a 
>> numeration like myoutput001.png / myoutput002.png....
>>
>> Byt the way, my example is with plot, but I will use plot(x), image(x), 
>> points(x), lines(x) etc. Any idea?
>>
>> Kind regards
>> Miltinho
>> Brazil
>>
>>
>>
>>  para armazenamento!
>>
>>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
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>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595