From cstrato at aon.at  Mon Mar 26 19:49:27 2007
From: cstrato at aon.at (cstrato)
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:49:27 +0200
Subject: [Rd] Limitation of dirname() and basename()
Message-ID: <460807A7.5030405@aon.at>

Dear all,

I have already twice encountered a case which I consider a limitation of
dirname() and basename().

In my functions I have a parameter "outfile" which e.g. tells where a file
should be stored. Usually "outfile" is of the form:
oufile = "/my/path/myname.txt"

 > outfile <- "/my/path/myname.txt"
 > dirname(outfile)
[1] "/my/path"
 > basename(outfile)
[1] "myname.txt"

However, in addition I want to be able to define the path only, while
creating the name "myname.txt" automatically.
Sorrowly, I get the following:

 > outfile <- "/my/path/"
 > dirname(outfile)
[1] "/my"
 > basename(outfile)
[1] "path"

It would be great if dirname() and basename() could recognize:
dirname("/my/path/")      = /my/path/
basename(""/my/path/")  = ""
i.e. they should be able to recognize a trailing "/".

Best regards
Christian
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
C.h.i.s.t.i.a.n S.t.r.a.t.o.w.a
V.i.e.n.n.a       A.u.s.t.r.i.a
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[Rd] Limitation of dirname() and basename()
cstrato