title: String continuation across multiple lines, no newline characters
body: <p>Am using the RODBC library to bring data into R.  I have a long query that I want to pass a variable to, much like <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4330072/pass-r-variable-to-rodbcs-sqlquery">this</a> SO user.  </p>
  
  <p>Problem is that R interprets the whitespace/carriage returns in my query as a newline <code>'\n'</code>.</p>
  
  <p>The accepted solution for <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6329962/split-code-over-multiple-lines-in-an-r-script">this question</a> suggests to simply break up the text into chunks and then <code>paste()</code> together - which works, but ideally I'd like to keep the whitespace intact - makes it easier to test/verify the behavior of the query over in the database before pasting into R.</p>
  
  <p>In other languages I'm familiar with there's a simple line continuation character - indeed, several of the <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/6330066/561698">comments</a> on the accepted answer are looking for an approach similar to python's <code>\</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I found an aside to a workaround using <code>strwrap</code> deep in the bowels of an R discussion lists, so in the interest of making the internet better I will post it here.  However, if someone can point the direction toward a more elegant/straightforward solution, I will happily accept your answer.</p>