Formatted scientific names from R to LaTeX (using Sweave or knitr)

I am implementing a function print_name in the package taxlist.
For example, I can format a name for markdown:

print_name

library(taxlist)
data(Easplist)
print_name(Easplist, 206, style="markdown")


The output in the console is then:

[1] "*Cyperus papyrus* L."


I can use this command for example to mention a species in the content of a markdown document by `r I(print_name(Easplist, 206, style="markdown"))`, where the scientific name appears as italics and the author name does not.

`r I(print_name(Easplist, 206, style="markdown"))`

I would like to implement an option (i.e. style="latex") retrieving the string formatted for LaTeX, which can be inserted through something like Sexpr{print_name(Easplist, 206, style="latex")} (this example is only an hypothetical one).
The output should be then textit{Cyperus papyrus} L. but all my attempts failed because backslash is a scape in R strings.

style="latex"

Sexpr{print_name(Easplist, 206, style="latex")}

textit{Cyperus papyrus} L.

Is there a way to achieve properly this task?

Note: The function is at the moment not implemented in the CRAN version of the package, thus to reproduce the example use the last version from GitHub:

devtools::install_github("kamapu/taxlist")


1 Answer
1

What I imagine that you are doing is this:

<<example, echo=FALSE>>=
library(taxlist)
data(Easplist)
Sexpr{print_name(Easplist, 206, style="markdown")}
@


Simply move the Sexpr{}to outsite the chunk.

Sexpr{}

<<example, echo=FALSE>>=
library(taxlist)
data(Easplist)
@

Sexpr{print_name(Easplist, 206, style="markdown")}


That will output you what you want.

EDIT:

If you are trying to incorporate "latex" as a style option for the output, then it should look like this when it outputs outside of latex:

library(taxlist)
data(Easplist)
print_name(Easplist, 206, style="latex")
[1] "textit{Cyperus papyrus} L."


The "" will escape the escape. I did not incorporate it into your function, but here is an example:

<<>>=
example_text <- "Cyperus papyrus L."
example_text <- strsplit(example_text, split = " ")
test1 <- paste0("textit{", example_text[[1]][1], " ", example_text[[1]][2], "}",
" ", example_text[[1]][3])
@

Sexpr{test1} is a paper reed.


The output looks like this in the rendered pdf.

I apologize for the confusion, please see my edited answer above.
– AndS.
2 days ago

Wow! This is really working! Nevertheless it is working only with knitr but not with Sweave.
– Miguel Alvarez
2 days ago

knitr

Sweave

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