title: use sprintf with a vector rather than a variable number of arguments in R
body: <p>I would like to use the <code>sprintf</code> function in R with a variable number of arguments.  Can I bundle these arguments together in a character vector or list in order to avoid supplying these arguments to <code>sprintf</code> individually?</p>
  
  <p>An example will clarify:</p>
  
  <pre><code>base_string = "(1) %s, (2) %s, (3) %s"
  sprintf(base_string, "foo", "bar", "baz") # this works
  sprintf(base_string, c("foo", "bar", "baz")) # this doesn't work
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In Python I can accomplish this with</p>
  
  <pre><code>base_string = "(1) %s, (2) %s, (3) %s"
  base_string % ("foo", "bar", "baz")
  </code></pre>