How to run R script from C# code?

Question

I am using MS Visual Studio R Tools where I can prepare and test script in R language. Then I want to start process (using Process.Start(startInfo)) from C# code to execute this script, wait until it finishes and check output. The script produces some statistical computations and saves results on hard drive in .csv file.

How do I find the path to R interpreter? Is the code below correct?

Is it possible to add command line arguments to the R script when calling it from C# code?

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(); r_interpreter_path="???"; startInfo.FileName = r_interpreter_path; startInfo.Arguments = "\"" + r_script_name + " \""; //Add command line arguments startInfo.Arguments += " -sd " + date_start_str + " -ed " + date_end_str; startInfo.UseShellExecute = false; startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true; startInfo.CreateNoWindow = true; startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true; using (Process process = Process.Start(startInfo)) { using (StreamReader reader = process.StandardOutput) { string result = reader.ReadToEnd(); Debug.WriteLine(result); } process.WaitForExit(); //string errMsg = process.StandardError.ReadToEnd(); //if (errMsg != "") // return false; GC.Collect(); } 

Answer 1

There are multiple R executables. For running a R script in batch mode you will want to use Rscript.exe. It is located in the bin/ subfolder of your R installation directory.

The first argument is the .R file to execute, additional arguments can be supplied. All arguments are available to your R-Script via calling the commandArgs() function.

Note that there exists R.NET which is also available as NuGet-package. This library allows you to directly interact with the R intepreter from C#. You can also exchange data diretcly.