How do I properly nest paste() functions in R?

Question

Can you tell me why

paste(paste(c(\"first\", \"second\"), collapse=\", \"), \"third\", collapse=\" and \")

gives me

\"first,          


        

Answer 1

Or use:

paste(paste(c("first", "second"), collapse=", "), "third", sep=", and ")
## "first, second, and third"

And see this blog post on pasting: http://trinkerrstuff.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/paste-paste0-and-sprintf-2/