Executing R script programmatically

Question

I have a C# program that generates some R code. Right now I save the script to file and then copy/paste it into the R console. I know there is a COM interface to R, but it doesn't seem to work with the latest version of R (or any version after 2.7.8). Is there some way I can just programmatically execute the R script from C# after saving it to file?

Answer 1

Here is the class I recently wrote for this purpose. You can also pass in and return arguments from C# and R:

/// <summary> /// This class runs R code from a file using the console. /// </summary> public class RScriptRunner { /// <summary> /// Runs an R script from a file using Rscript.exe. /// Example: /// RScriptRunner.RunFromCmd(curDirectory + @"\ImageClustering.r", "rscript.exe", curDirectory.Replace('\\','/')); /// Getting args passed from C# using R: /// args = commandArgs(trailingOnly = TRUE) /// print(args[1]); /// </summary> /// <param name="rCodeFilePath">File where your R code is located.</param> /// <param name="rScriptExecutablePath">Usually only requires "rscript.exe"</param> /// <param name="args">Multiple R args can be seperated by spaces.</param> /// <returns>Returns a string with the R responses.</returns> public static string RunFromCmd(string rCodeFilePath, string rScriptExecutablePath, string args) { string file = rCodeFilePath; string result = string.Empty; try { var info = new ProcessStartInfo(); info.FileName = rScriptExecutablePath; info.WorkingDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(rScriptExecutablePath); info.Arguments = rCodeFilePath + " " + args; info.RedirectStandardInput = false; info.RedirectStandardOutput = true; info.UseShellExecute = false; info.CreateNoWindow = true; using (var proc = new Process()) { proc.StartInfo = info; proc.Start(); result = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd(); } return result; } catch (Exception ex) { throw new Exception("R Script failed: " + result, ex); } } } 

NOTE: You may want to add the following to you code, if you are interested in cleaning up the process.

proc.CloseMainWindow(); proc.Close();

Answer 2

To do this in C# you'll need to use

shell (R CMD BATCH myRprogram.R) 

Be sure to wrap your plots like this

pdf(file="myoutput.pdf") plot (x,y) dev.off() 

or image wrappers

Answer 3

Here is a simple way to achieve that,

My Rscript is located at:

C:\Program Files\R\R-3.3.1\bin\RScript.exe

R Code is at :

C:\Users\lenovo\Desktop\R_trial\withoutALL.R

 using System; using System.Diagnostics; public partial class Rscript_runner : System.Web.UI.Page { protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { Process.Start(@"C:\Program Files\R\R-3.3.1\bin\RScript.exe","C:\\Users\\lenovo\\Desktop\\R_trial\\withoutALL.R"); } } 

Answer 4

I would presume that C# has a function similar to system() which would allow you to call scripts running via Rscript.exe.

Answer 5

Our solution based on this answer on stackoverflow Call R (programming language) from .net

With monor change, we send R code from string and save it to temp file, since user run custom R code when needed.

public static void RunFromCmd(string batch, params string[] args) { // Not required. But our R scripts use allmost all CPU resources if run multiple instances lock (typeof(REngineRunner)) { string file = string.Empty; string result = string.Empty; try { // Save R code to temp file file = TempFileHelper.CreateTmpFile(); using (var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(new FileStream(file, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Write))) { streamWriter.Write(batch); } // Get path to R var rCore = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\R-core") ?? Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\R-core"); var is64Bit = Environment.Is64BitProcess; if (rCore != null) { var r = rCore.OpenSubKey(is64Bit ? "R64" : "R"); var installPath = (string)r.GetValue("InstallPath"); var binPath = Path.Combine(installPath, "bin"); binPath = Path.Combine(binPath, is64Bit ? "x64" : "i386"); binPath = Path.Combine(binPath, "Rscript"); string strCmdLine = @"/c """ + binPath + @""" " + file; if (args.Any()) { strCmdLine += " " + string.Join(" ", args); } var info = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd", strCmdLine); info.RedirectStandardInput = false; info.RedirectStandardOutput = true; info.UseShellExecute = false; info.CreateNoWindow = true; using (var proc = new Process()) { proc.StartInfo = info; proc.Start(); result = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd(); } } else { result += "R-Core not found in registry"; } Console.WriteLine(result); } catch (Exception ex) { throw new Exception("R failed to compute. Output: " + result, ex); } finally { if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(file)) { TempFileHelper.DeleteTmpFile(file, false); } } } } 

Full blog post: http://kostylizm.blogspot.ru/2014/05/run-r-code-from-c-sharp.html