How to set ',' as decimal separator with R

Question

Even though my Windows 7 locale settings specify using \",\" as a decimal separator, R and RStudio give me a \".\" separator. Is there any way to change this? Note the \"LC_

Answer 1

Based on the fact that you want to use it with (Pandoc) markdown as far as I can see from the blog comment where you referenced this question, I would also suggest to give a try to my pander package:

> library(pander)
> panderOptions('decimal.mark', ',')
> panderOptions('table.split.table', Inf)
> pander(head(iris))

-------------------------------------------------------------------
 Sepal.Length   Sepal.Width   Petal.Length   Petal.Width   Species 
-------------- ------------- -------------- ------------- ---------
     5,1            3,5           1,4            0,2       setosa  

     4,9             3            1,4            0,2       setosa  

     4,7            3,2           1,3            0,2       setosa  

     4,6            3,1           1,5            0,2       setosa  

      5             3,6           1,4            0,2       setosa  

     5,4            3,9           1,7            0,4       setosa  
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Or PHP Markdown Extra syntax for easier usage with knitr:

> pandoc.table(head(iris), style = 'rmarkdown')


|  Sepal.Length  |  Sepal.Width  |  Petal.Length  |  Petal.Width  |  Species  |
|:--------------:|:-------------:|:--------------:|:-------------:|:---------:|
|      5,1       |      3,5      |      1,4       |      0,2      |  setosa   |
|      4,9       |       3       |      1,4       |      0,2      |  setosa   |
|      4,7       |      3,2      |      1,3       |      0,2      |  setosa   |
|      4,6       |      3,1      |      1,5       |      0,2      |  setosa   |
|       5        |      3,6      |      1,4       |      0,2      |  setosa   |
|      5,4       |      3,9      |      1,7       |      0,4      |  setosa   |