RSiteSearch              package:utils              R Documentation

Search for Key Words or Phrases in the R-help Mailing List Archives
or Documentation

Description:

     Search for key words or phrases in the R-help mailing list
     archives, or R manuals and help pages, using the search engine at
     <URL: http://search.r-project.org> and view them in a web browser.

Usage:

     RSiteSearch(string,
                 restrict = c("Rhelp02a", "functions", "docs"),
                 format = c("normal", "short"),
                 sortby = c("score", "date:late", "date:early",
                            "subject", "subject:descending",
                            "from", "from:descending",
                            "size", "size:descending"),
                 matchesPerPage = 20)

Arguments:

  string: word(s) or phrase to search.  If the words are to be searched
          as one entity, enclose all words in braces (see example).

restrict: a character vector, typically of length larger than one: What
          areas to search in: 'Rhelp02a' for R-help mailing list
          archive since 2002, 'Rhelp01' for mailing list archive before
          2002, 'docs' for R manuals, 'functions' for help pages.
          'R-devel' for R-devel mailing list. Use 'c()' to specify more
          than one.

  format: 'normal' or 'short' (no excerpts); can be abbreviated.

  sortby: character string (can be abbreviated) indicating how to sort
          the search results:
           ('score', 'date:late' for sorting by date with latest
          results first, 'date:early' for earliest first, 'subject' for
          subject in alphabetical order, 'subject:descending' for
          reverse alphabetical order, 'from' or 'from:descending' for
          sender (when applicable), 'size' or 'size:descending' for
          size.)

matchesPerPage: How many items to show per page.

Details:

     This function is designed to work with the search site at <URL:
     http://search.r-project.org>, and depends on that site continuing
     to be made available (thanks to Jonathan Baron and the School of
     Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennslyvania).

     Unique partial matches will work for all arguments.  Each new
     browser window will stay open unless you close it.

Value:

     (Invisibly) the complete URL passed to the browser, including the
     query string.

Author(s):

     Andy Liaw and Jonathan Baron

See Also:

     'help.search', 'help.start' for local searches.

     'browseURL' for how the help file is displayed.

Examples:

      # need Internet connection
     RSiteSearch("{logistic regression}") # matches exact phrase
     Sys.sleep(5) # allow browser to open, take a quick look
     RSiteSearch("Baron Liaw", restrict = "Rhelp02a")
     ## Search in R-devel archive and documents  (and store the query-string):
     Sys.sleep(5)
     fullquery <- RSiteSearch("S4", restrict = c("R-dev", "docs"))
     fullquery # a string of ~ 116 characters
     ## the latest purported bug reports, responses ...
     Sys.sleep(5)
     RSiteSearch("bug", restrict = "R-devel", sortby = "date:late")

