Question

For the following code: I can’t figure out why j does not print on every outside loop iteration.

x = 0

for (j in 1:15)
{
for (i in 1:100000)
{
x = x + 1
}
print(j)
}

What R seems to be doing is running the the whole thing, and at the end print out all the js, not one by one as when every loop iterates.

It seems to be that j should be printing after every loop iteration, what am I missing here?

Is there a way to make it such that j in printed on every outside loop iteration?

Thank You

Answer 1

I’m guessing you are using the Windows Rgui, which buffers its console output, and then writes it out in chunks (see the R Windows FAQ 7.1). To force immediate printing to the console, you can simply add a call to flush.console() after the print() statement.

x = 0

for (j in 1:15) {
    for (i in 1:100000) {
        x = x + 1
    }
    print(j)
    flush.console()
}