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

you can override the %+% operator to have better string concatination syntax:

'%+%' <- function(x,y) paste(x,y,sep="")

y<-"y1"
x<-"somethingorother"
query<-
'SELECT DISTINCT x AS ' %+% x %+%',\n'    %+%
'                y AS ' %+% y %+% '\n'    %+%
' FROM tbl
 WHERE id=%s
 AND num=%d'

cat(query,"\n")

yields:

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