R-Cran

Question

Hey there,
I plan to write a program which uses a mathematical Tool called R-Cran ( http://www.r-project.org/ ) that runs in the background and is a console program.
Now I'd like to connect my Java proggy with R and send it the following command:
c(1,2,3,4,5)
Normally R generates the following output which I'd like to get pasted over into a JTextField or whatever in my java proggy:
[1] 1 2 3 4 5
Has anybody experiences on that and could provide me with some links, tutorials and howtos how to do that? Or perhaps knows a simple way how to realize that?
Is there a general way how to run a console program from a Java app and receive its output.
In a more evolved version I'd like to pass data, say a vector of a vector over to R and some grafical output from R to java. I know that R has some methods to read/write data from a file - might a temporary file from my java app might be a possibility? How to code that (Links/keywords)?
Thx in advance!!

Answer 1

First thing I would look into would be the Runtime class, and the exec(...) method.
That creates a process running an external executable, with the ability to feed a stream of data to and from.
Make sure you read:
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-12-2000/jw-1229-traps.html
and look at the API:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/Runtime.html
You should also look into that other application to see if it provides a method of inter-application communication.