Passing a string into Sweave Rnw file

Question

I understand from this question that it's possible to push a variable to an Rnw file from the R script that calls it by storing that variable in the global environment within the R script. I've tried to do that but I can't get the Sweave file to recognize the variable.

For example, if I have an R script (say, test.R) that looks like:

TESTGLOBALVARIABLE <<- "XXXXXXXXXTESTGLOBALVARIABLEXXXXXXXXXXX"
system("R CMD Sweave /foo/bar/test.Rnw"))

and test.Rnw looks like:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[absolute]{textpos}
\setlength{\TPHorizModule}{30mm}
\setlength{\TPVertModule}{\TPHorizModule}
\textblockorigin{10mm}{10mm} % start everything near the top-left corner
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{textblock}{3}(0,0)
The test global variable is: \Sexpr{TESTGLOBALVARIABLE}
\end{textblock}

\begin{textblock}{2}(2,1)
\textblocklabel{block two}
Here is another, slightly narrower, block, at position (2,1) on the page.
\end{textblock}

\end{document}

When I run test.R, I get an error Error: at test.Rnw:13, object 'TESTGLOBALVARIABLE' not found Execution halted.

I've checked similar questions like this one. Is it possible to do this without brew?

Answer 1

Does it work when you source your file.R?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[absolute]{textpos}
\setlength{\TPHorizModule}{30mm}
\setlength{\TPVertModule}{\TPHorizModule}
\textblockorigin{10mm}{10mm} % start everything near the top-left corner
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

\begin{document}

<<sourcing_r, include=FALSE, echo=FALSE, results=hide>>=
source(file = "/foo/bar/test.R")
@


\begin{textblock}{3}(0,0)
The test global variable is: \Sexpr{TESTGLOBALVARIABLE}
\end{textblock}

\begin{textblock}{5}(2,1)
\textblocklabel{block two}
Here is another, slightly narrower, block, at position (2,1) on the page.
\end{textblock}

\end{document}

Answer 2

With some inspiration from nebi's answer, I was able to do it by creating a separate R script set_vars2.R written by test.R:

If test.R is:

directory <- "/foo/bar/"
setwd(directory)

file.create(paste0(directory, "set_vars2.R", open = "r"))
fileConn <- file(paste0(directory, "set_vars2.R"))
writeLines(c("TESTGLOBALVARIABLE <<- \"XXXXTESTGLOBALVARIABLEXXXXX\"",""), fileConn)
close(fileConn)

system(paste0("R CMD Sweave ", directory, "test.Rnw"))
system(paste0("pdflatex ",     directory, "test.tex"))

and test.Rnw is:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[absolute]{textpos}

\setlength{\TPHorizModule}{30mm}
\setlength{\TPVertModule}{\TPHorizModule}
\textblockorigin{10mm}{10mm} % start everything near the top-left corner
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

\begin{document}

<<sourcing_r, include=FALSE, echo=FALSE, results=hide>>=
source("/foo/bar/set_vars2.R")
@

\begin{textblock}{3}(0,0)
The test global variable is \Sexpr{TESTGLOBALVARIABLE}
\end{textblock}

\end{document}