--- loncom/lonr	2014/11/16 15:35:27	1.10
+++ loncom/lonr	2014/11/16 17:41:53	1.11
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 # The LearningOnline Network with CAPA
 # Connect to R CAS
 #
-# $Id: lonr,v 1.10 2014/11/16 15:35:27 raeburn Exp $
+# $Id: lonr,v 1.11 2014/11/16 17:41:53 raeburn Exp $
 #
 # Copyright Michigan State University Board of Trustees
 #
@@ -351,12 +351,28 @@ sub getroutput {
 	return 'Error: '.$error;
     }
 
+#
+# Extract data from lines returned by R:
+#   including: (a) indexed output, e.g., line starts with [1] etc. (index excluded)
+#              (b) support for legacy use of &cas("R") to retreve matrix and data.frame
+#                  i.e., unserialized data, in which lines may begin [1,] or 1
+#                  respectively. The approved method for retrieving these types of
+#                  data is to use &cas_hashref(), which uses phpSerialize() to 
+#                  serialize the output (thereby eliminating the need for the second
+#                  regexp in the "elsif" when looping over the lines of output.
+#   excluding: echo of actual (final) expression originally passed to R excluded by 
+#              checking for trailing semicolon. 
+#
+
     my $realoutput='';
     foreach my $line (split(/\n/,$output)) {
         $line=~s/\s$//gs;
         if ($line=~/^Error\:/) { $syntaxerr=1; next; }
-        if ($line=~ /\;$/) { next; }
-        if (my ($result)=($line=~/^\s*\[?\d+\,?\]?\s*(.*)/)) { $realoutput.=$result."\n"; }
+        if (my ($result)=($line=~/^\s*\[\d+\]\s*(.*)/)) {
+            $realoutput.=$result."\n";
+        } elsif (($line !~ /\;$/) && (my ($result)=($line=~/^(?:\[\d+\,\]|\d+)\s*(.*)/))) {
+            $realoutput.=$result."\n";
+        }
     }
     if (wantarray) {
         return ($realoutput,$syntaxerr);