utilities.R

#' Tidy long numbers
#'
#' \code{tidyNum} reformats long numbers to include commas and prevents scientific formats
#'
#' @param number an input number or list
#'
#' @author Ben Anderson, \email{b.anderson@@soton.ac.uk}
#' @export
#'
tidyNum <- function(number) {
  format(number, big.mark=",", scientific=FALSE)
}

#' Find the path to Parent Directory
#'
#' Equivalent of \code{findParentDirectory}. Is useful for running a project
#'   across multiple computers where the project is stored in different directories.
#'
#' @param Parent the name of the directory to which the function should track back.
#' Should be the root of the GitHub repository
#'
#' @author Mikey Harper, \email{m.harper@@soton.ac.uk}
#' @export
#'
findParentDirectory <- function(Parent){
  directory <-getwd()
  while(basename(directory) != Parent){
    directory <- dirname(directory)

  }
  return(directory)
}


#' Installs and loads packages
#'
#' \code{loadLibraries} checks whether the package is already installed,
#'   installing those which are not preinstalled. All the libraries are then loaded.
#'
#'   Especially useful when running on virtual machines where package installation
#'   is not persistent (Like UoS sve). It will fail if the packages need to be
#'   installed but there is no internet access.
#'
#'   NB: in R 'require' tries to load a package but throws a warning & moves on if it's not there
#'   whereas 'library' throws an error if it can't load the package. Hence 'loadLibraries'
#'   https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5595512/what-is-the-difference-between-require-and-library
#' @param ... A list of packages
#' @param repo The repository to load functions from. Defaults to "https://cran.rstudio.com"
#' @importFrom  utils install.packages
#'
#' @author Luke Blunden, \email{lsb@@soton.ac.uk} (original)
#' @author Michael Harper \email{m.harper@@soton.ac.uk} (revised version)
#' @export
#'
loadLibraries <- function(..., repo = "https://cran.rstudio.com"){

  packages <- c(...)

  # Check if package is installed
  newPackages <- packages[!(packages %in% utils::installed.packages()[,1])]

  # Install if required
  if (length(newPackages)){utils::install.packages(newPackages, dependencies = TRUE)}

  # Load packages
  sapply(packages, require, character.only = TRUE)
}


#' Concatenate vectors after converting to character and print message
#'
#' \code{outputMessage} 
#' Concatenate vectors after converting to character and print message
#'
#' Display a message in the output. Equivalent to \code{print(paste(c(...)))}, also like glue()
#'
#' @param ... one or more R objects, to be converted to character vectors.
#' @param collapse an optional character string to separate the results. Not NA_character_.
#'
#' @author Mikey Harper, \email{m.harper@@soton.ac.uk}
#' @export
outputMessage <- function(..., collapse = NULL){
  
  writeLines(paste(..., sep = " "))
  
}