Scanning data files line-by-line

Maybe I'm missing something.  When I do readLines( "file", n = 1) and
repeat, it always reads the first line of "file".  I've to be able to
advance to the next line, no?

I'll take a look at the command file(), as someone else suggested.

Yes, that's your solution.  

con <- file("foo") 

will open the file called foo and attach it to a connection called
con.  You pass con to readLines, and since the file stays open between
calls, you'll get successive lines.  Remember close(con) when you're
done.

Duncan Murdoch