replace - R sprintf maximal input length -

r's sprintf has preset maximal input length set 8192 bytes:

sprintf(x, y) error in sprintf(x, y) : 'fmt' length exceeds maximal format length 8192 

what workaround longer input strings? learned in c there snprintf function such cases, seems not available in r, isn't it?

example

the input file like

select * some_table = '%s' ,       b = %d ,       c in (%s) ,       d = %s ,       e >= %0.2f 

but much more complicated , much longer. need replace values values. sprintf great 1 of input scripts working long. need multiple different arguments replaced , arguments have different formats (string, double, float). values replaced located in different parts of input file need search , replace them in given order. know this approach parametrized queries, need use different library (rpostgresql).

i wrote little function cuts fmt argument smaller pieces, looks variables associated %... expressions, , calls sprintf each of these pieces. match.call used arguments hidden in .... sprintf called via do.call, because priori don't know of further arguments in ... belong current piece of fmt. function not @ perfect. example far fmt cut pieces of fixed length. in general doesn't work because have keep %... expressions intact. see if works, left result list of strings.

f <- function(n, fmt, ...) {   cl <- as.list(match.call())   n <- nchar(fmt)   p <- which(unlist(strsplit(fmt,""))=="%")    result <- list()    ( in 0:(n%/%n))   {     start <- i*n+1     end   <- min((i+1)*n,n)     fm <- substr(fmt,start,end)     k <- which(p %in% (start:end))     v <<- c(list(fm),cl[k+3])     result[[i+1]] <- do.call("sprintf", v )   }    return(result) } 

a small example using pieces of length 10:

> f( 10, "xyz: %i -ää %s 3 %i %f );", 3, "+++", 12, 0.123 ) [[1]] [1] "xyz: 3 -ä"  [[2]] [1] "ä +++ 3 12 "  [[3]] [1] "0.123000 );"  > paste(f( 10, "xyz: %i -ää %s 3 %i %f );", 3, "+++", 12, 0.123 ),collapse="") [1] "xyz: 3 -ää +++ 3 12 0.123000 );" 

perhaps 1 can use regular expressions detect %...'s , find right cutting points.