Using unicode with sprintf or paste in Windows (PR#11515)

This is not a bug -- it is the expected (and documented) behaviour.

Full_Name: Michael Toews
Version: 2.7.0
OS: Windows XP SP2
Submission from: (NULL) (24.80.163.230)

Using Unicode characters in Windows works with static strings (as of R 2.7.0),
however fails when used with sprintf() or paste(). For example, on R 2.7.0 for
Windows XP (SP2):

Static string (works, showing Greek Delta character):
print("\u0394Q = 2.2 L/s")
[1] "&#916;Q = 2.2 L/s"

However, when I use paste() or sprintf(), the Unicodeness is lost:
paste("\u0394Q =",round(1.2345,3),"L/s")
[1] "<U+0394>Q = 1.234 L/s"
sprintf("\u0394Q = %.3f L/s",1.2345)
[1] "<U+0394>Q = 1.234 L/s"

I have also tested this with R 2.7.0 for Linux, which yields the following:
print("\u0394Q = 2.2 L/s")
[1] "&#916;Q = 2.2 L/s"
paste("\u0394Q =",round(1.2345,3),"L/s")
[1] "&#916;Q = 1.234 L/s"
sprintf("\u0394Q = %.3f L/s",1.2345)
[1] "&#916;Q = 1.234 L/s"
It depends on the locale ... you cannot expect to be able to manipulate 
Unicode strings in a non-Unicode locale (although you can pass them around 
as data, unchanged).
(Note: this was posted on R-help with no replies:
https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2008-May/162815.html )
Well, the posting guide asks you to do your homework before posting.
In this case, the 'R Internals' manual and the source code.
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
Let me add that ?Encoding gives a pretty comprehensive description of how 
encodings are handled, including the circumstances in which they are 
preserved.

This is not a bug -- it is the expected (and documented) behaviour.

On Mon, 26 May 2008, mwtoews at sfu.ca wrote:

Full_Name: Michael Toews
Version: 2.7.0
OS: Windows XP SP2
Submission from: (NULL) (24.80.163.230)

Using Unicode characters in Windows works with static strings (as of R 2.7.0),
however fails when used with sprintf() or paste(). For example, on R 2.7.0 for
Windows XP (SP2):

Static string (works, showing Greek Delta character):
print("\u0394Q = 2.2 L/s")
[1] "&#916;Q = 2.2 L/s"

However, when I use paste() or sprintf(), the Unicodeness is lost:
paste("\u0394Q =",round(1.2345,3),"L/s")
[1] "<U+0394>Q = 1.234 L/s"
sprintf("\u0394Q = %.3f L/s",1.2345)
[1] "<U+0394>Q = 1.234 L/s"

I have also tested this with R 2.7.0 for Linux, which yields the following:
print("\u0394Q = 2.2 L/s")
[1] "&#916;Q = 2.2 L/s"
paste("\u0394Q =",round(1.2345,3),"L/s")
[1] "&#916;Q = 1.234 L/s"
sprintf("\u0394Q = %.3f L/s",1.2345)
[1] "&#916;Q = 1.234 L/s"
It depends on the locale ... you cannot expect to be able to manipulate
Unicode strings in a non-Unicode locale (although you can pass them around
as data, unchanged).

(Note: this was posted on R-help with no replies:
https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2008-May/162815.html )
Well, the posting guide asks you to do your homework before posting.
In this case, the 'R Internals' manual and the source code.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

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Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595