Variable length datafile import problem

From: John Kane <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca>
Subject: RE: [R] Variable length datafile import problem
To: "Ingo Reinhold" <ingor at kth.se>
Received: Thursday, February 17, 2011, 5:54 AM
Generally most of the gurus are in
this list.? Hopefully someone will take an interest in
the problem. 

I suspect that there may be some kind of weird value in the
file that is upsetting in import.? Given the results I
got when I removed the data past BD and then at AL it seems
that the problem might be within this range.

You could try removing half the data between those columns
and see what happens, then repeat if something turns up.
It's tedious but unless someone with a better grasp of
variable length data import can help it's the best I can
suggest.

BTW you only replied to me.? You should make sure to
cc the list otherwise readers won't realise that I am being
of no help.

If you still have the problem by Saturday e-mail me or post
to the list and I'll try to spent some more time messing
about with the problem.

Sorry to be of so little help.
--- On Thu, 2/17/11, Ingo Reinhold <ingor at kth.se>
wrote:

From: Ingo Reinhold <ingor at kth.se>
Subject: RE: [R] Variable length datafile import

problem

To: "John Kane" <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca>
Received: Thursday, February 17, 2011, 5:36 AM
Hi John, 

as it seems we're hitting the wall here, can you

maybe

recommend another mailing list with "gurus" (as you

put it)

that may be able to help?

Regards, 

Ingo

problem

Hi Ingo,

I've had a bit of time to examine the file and I must

say

that, at the moment, I have no idea what is going

on.?

I tried the old cut the file into pieces trick just

came up

with even more anomalous results.

My first attempt remove all the data past column AL in

an

OOo Calc spreadsheet.? This created a rectangular
dataset It imported into R with no problem with 38

columns

as expected.

Then I deleted all the data from the orignal data

file

(test.dat) removing all the data past column BD in an

OOo

Calc spreadsheet.

This imported a file with only 38 columns.

Something very funny is happening but at the moment I

have

no

--- On Wed, 2/16/11, Ingo Reinhold <ingor at kth.se>
wrote:

From: Ingo Reinhold <ingor at kth.se>
Subject: RE: [R] Variable length datafile import

problem

To: "John Kane" <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca>
Received: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 1:59 AM
Hi John,

V1 should be just a character. However I figured

something

out myself. The import looks OK in terms of

column

when

adding the flush=TRUE option.

I am still very confused about the dimensions

that

the

imported data shows. Loading my data file into

something

like OOspreadsheet shows me a maximum of about

245,

which

does not correspond to the 146 generated by R.

Any

idea

where this saturation comes from?

Thanks,

Ingo

problem

Is rawData$V1 intended to be factor or

character?

str(rawData) gives
$ V1? : Factor w/ 54 levels

"-232.0","-234.0",..:

41

41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 ...

If you were not expecting a factor you might try
options(stringsAsFactors = FALSE) before

importing

the

data.

--- On Tue, 2/15/11, Ingo Reinhold <ingor at kth.se>
wrote:

From: Ingo Reinhold <ingor at kth.se>
Subject: RE: [R] Variable length datafile

import

problem

To: "John Kane" <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca>
Received: Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 3:35

PM

Dear all,

I have changed the file-ending with no

change in

the

result. I don't think that this should

matter.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2414056/Test.dat
is a test file which represent the structure

I

am

trying to

read. So far I have used

rawData=read.table("Test.txt", fill=TRUE,

sep="\t",

header=FALSE);

When then looking at rawData$V1 this gives

me a

distorted

view of my original first column.

Thanks,

Ingo