Function to concatenate paths?

Question

Is there an existing function to concatenate paths? I know it is not that difficult to implement, but still... besides taking care of trailing `/` (or `\`) I would need to take care of proper OS path format detection (i.e. whether we write `C:\dir\file` or `/dir/file`). As I said, I believe I know how to implement it; the question is: should I do it? Does the functionality already exist in existing R package?

Accepted Answer

Yes, `file.path()`

```
R> file.path("usr", "local", "lib")
[1] "usr/local/lib"
R> 
```

There is also the equally useful `system.file()` for files in a package:

```
R> system.file("extdata", "date_time_zonespec.csv", package="RcppBDT")
[1] "/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/RcppBDT/extdata/date_time_zonespec.csv"
R> 
```

which will get the file `extdata/date_time_zonespec.csv` irrespective of

- where the package is installed, and

- the OS

which is very handy. Lastly, there is also

```
R> .Platform$file.sep
[1] "/"
R> 
```

if you insist on doing it manually.

Function to concatenate paths?

Solution

Problem