xlsReadWrite Pro and embedding objects and files in Excel worksheets

Its not entirely clear to me what it is that you are looking
for.  Maybe you want to create an Excel spreadsheet with a hyperlink
to a web page?  This R code will do that.  It requires a Windows machine that
has Excel running on it.


library(RDCOMClient)
xl <- COMCreate("Excel.Application")
xl[["Visible"]] <- TRUE
wkbk <- xl$Workbooks()$Add()

sh <- xl$ActiveSheet()

B2R <- sh$Range("B3")
B2R[["Formula"]] <- '=HYPERLINK("http://www.r-project.org")'

wkbk$SaveAs("\\test-url.xls")
xl$Quit()




On 2/8/07, Mark W Kimpel <mwkimpel at gmail.com> wrote:

Hans-Peter and other R developers,

How are you? Have you made any progess with embedding Url's in Excel?

Well, I have been busy thinking of more things for you to do;)

My colleagues in the lab are not R literate, and some are barely
computer literate, so I give them everything in Excel workbooks. I have
gradually evolved a system such that these workbooks have become
compendia of my data, output, and methods. That, in fact, is why I
bought the Pro version of xlsReadWritePro. I have been saving graphics
as PDF files, then inserting them as object in Excel sheets.

What I would like to be able to do is to embed objects (files) in sheets
of a workbook directly from within R. I would also like to be able to
save my current R workspace as an object embedded in a sheet so that in
the future, if packages change, I could go back and recreate the
analysis. I do not need to be able to manuipulate files that R has not
created, like a PDF file from another user. I would, however, like to be
able to save my graphics as PDF files inside a worksheet, even if it
meant creating a  temp file or something.

Before people begin talking about how MySQL or some other database could
handle all that archiving, let me say that that is not what my
colleagues want. They want a nice Excel file that they can take home on
there laptops. One thing I like about worksheets is that they themselves
can contain many embedded files, so it keeps our virtual desks neater
and less confusing.

Hans, if you could do this, it would be of tremendous benefit to me and
hopefully a lot of people. R developers tend to think that all
scientists are running Linux on 64-bit computers, but most biomedical
researches still store date in Excel files. This won't solve everybody's
needs, but it could be a start.

Well, let me know what you think. I am cc'ing R-devel to see if any of
those guys have ideas as well.

Thanks,
Mark



--
Mark W. Kimpel MD
Neuroinformatics
Department of Psychiatry
Indiana University School of Medicine