preprocessing data

My question is concerning the line 
"This is adequate for small files, but for anything more 
complicated we
recommend using the facilities   of a language like perl to 
pre-process the file."
An alternative to Perl is to use the big data library of S-PLUS 7 Enterprise,
which would allow you to read in the entire fixed-format file and pre-process
it using S commands. You could then export the processed data to a file from
S-PLUS and import into R.  If your university has S-PLUS, S-PLUS 7 Enterprise
should be available (all academic institutions were upgraded to S-PLUS 7
Enterprise, which has the big data library).

You can read more information about the big data library at:

http://www.insightful.com/insightful_doclib/document.asp?id=167

# David Smith
David M Smith <dsmith at insightful.com>
Senior Product Manager, Insightful Corp, Seattle WA
Tel: +1 (206) 802 2360
Fax: +1 (206) 283 6310

New S-PLUS 7! Create advanced statistical applications with large data sets.
www.insightful.com/splus

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jean Eid [mailto:jeaneid at chass.utoronto.ca]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 5:39 AM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: [R] preprocessing data
> 
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> My question is concerning the line
> "This is adequate for small files, but for anything more 
> complicated we
> recommend using the facilities   of a language like perl to 
> pre-process
> the file."
> 
> in the import/export manual.
> 
> I have a large fixed-width file that I would like to 
> preprocess in Perl or
> awk. The problem is that I do not know where to start. Does 
> anyone have a
> simple example on how to turn a fixed-width file in any of these
> facilities into csv or tab delimited file. I guess I am looking for
> somewhat a perl for dummies or awk for dummies that does this. any
> pointers for website will be greatly appreciated
> 
> Thank you
> 
> 
> Jean Eid
> 
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