Can I gracefully include formatted SQL strings in an R script?

Question

I\'m working in an R script that uses a long SQL string, and I would like to keep the query relatively free of other markup so as to allow copying and pasting between editor

Answer 1

If you're an old C programmer from way back, as I am, you might enjoy just using sprintf().

Borrowing Ian's example:

y<-"y1"
x<-"somethingorother"
query <- sprintf(
'SELECT DISTINCT x AS %s,
                 y AS %s,
 FROM tbl
 WHERE id=%%s
 AND num=%%d', x, y)

yields:

> cat(query,"\n")
SELECT DISTINCT x AS somethingorother,
                 y AS y1,
 FROM tbl
 WHERE id=%s
 AND num=%d