Writing functions that return code in other languages, to be rendered

[mattwarkentin]

Hi,

I think the question is relatively straightforward; I want to be able to write an R function that can be included in a code chunk in a R Markdown document; and the function should be able to return code in another language (e.g. HTML, LaTeX, markdown) which is then rendered as that code, and not just returned as R output.

For example, if rendering an html_document:

---
output: html_document
---

```{r}
foo <- function(text){
  x <- glue::glue('<strong>{text}</strong>')
  x
}
```

```{r}
foo('Here is my text')
htmltools::tag('strong', 'Here is my text')
```

When executed, the output from function foo() is returned as verbatim output

## <strong>Here is my text</strong>

While the htmltools function returns Here is my text

I have tried looking through the source code of htmltools to determine why its output gets rendered as HTML and my toy function simply treated as console output. Any insights?

[jm_t]

Hi,

I think you should try to use the option results="asis". More info in the rmarkdown documentation.

Regards,

jm

[mattwarkentin]

Thanks for the reply, @jm_t. It is true that including results = 'asis' in the code chunk will return the output of the function exactly as is, rather than wrapped in verbatim tags. I have tried this and it does indeed work. However, the htmltools functions and other similar functions do not require this chunk option, so I am still interested in what makes those functions work out-of-the box.

[jm_t]

Sorry I misunderstood you question. It is a good one and I would like also to know the answer.

At one point, I would like to use this to go around the limitations of block2 in Bookdown. Just need a function to start / end html div and latex environment depending of the rendering option.