%>% key binding / keyboard shortcut in Rstudio

35
votes

I've been experimenting quite a bit with the increasingly popular %>% operator from the magrittr package.

I've used it enough that I've set a keyboard shortcut to save me typing:

shift+command+. instead of space, shift+5, shift+., shift+5, space.

snapshot

This is great in SublimeTetxt2 but Rstudio does not allow services it does not work if I'm working within Rstudio projects.

So my question is:

Can you define text-inserting key-bindings or shortcuts within Rstudio?

This would be exactly synonymous with the alt+- binding for the assignment <- operator that is oxygen to the otter.

If someone could point me to where the shortcuts are coded in the github repo so I could "hack" my own, I suppose this would be a useful start.

https://github.com/rstudio/rstudio

4
rrstudiomagrittr
Have you posted a request in the RStudio forums? - Carl Witthoft
@CarlWitthoft done indeed. That being said I had hoped that there be a simple official method or fix/hack/workaround that I could adapt without having to submit FR. I would personally be very interested to find out what the folks at Rstudio think about making the UNIX-style syntax "more-accessible" to R users. - npjc
Haven't found a way, but currently I'm using AutoKey(code.google.com/p/autokey) on Linux to bind Alt+. to %>%. Works great and you can make it so that the shortcut is only "activated" in RStudio. - Rasmus Bååth
Nice idea. I use Emacs and created a key-chord (two keys pressed quickly) so that >> is auto-changed into the unwieldy %>%. - Kevin Wright
The latest preview version (> 0.99.660, Aug 2015) of RStudio allows you to modify many of the keyboard shortcuts. Just go to Tools -> Modify Keyboard Shortcuts. The pipe operator is not in that list btw. - Peter Diakumis

4 Answers

54
votes

Just noticed that RStudio v0.98.1079 has shift+command+M mapped for the %>% operator. You can check out the other keyboard shortcuts within RStudio by clicking at the Help tab or by entering alt+shift+K.

2
votes

For stuff like that you can use autohotkey. it is an external windows program but can do pretty much anything including hotkeys that type stuff and acronyms that are replaced by stuff you want

1
votes

I think the answer to your question is "Not currently, but it's on RStudio's to-do list" (see: this and this).

If you want to hack it yourself, it looks like this is where you'd do it (GitHub: rstudio / src / gwt / src / org / rstudio / core / rebind / command / ShortcutsEmitter.java).

Also, it looks like shortcuts are managed here (GitHub: rstudio / src / gwt / src / org / rstudio / core / client / command).

0
votes

R studio Preview (v0.99.671) now supports keybuindings customization. It also has a bunch of other nice improvements, give it a try:

https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/preview/