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Slicing cra**y csv files

6 messages · jorgusch, Patrick Connolly, John Kane

Original
jorgusch
# 
Hello,

For not too regular users of R, preparing the data is somehow a burden.

Comming from iMacro in FireFox I get a badly designed csv, which I need to
put into a daily R script. 
The data looks like that (e.g.):
22 Results,"35 Results","39 Results","2 Results","7 Results","23
Results","42 Results","36 Results","22 Results","28 Results"

and R does this to it:
             V1         V2         V3        V4        V5         V6        
V7
1 ???22 Results 35 Results 39 Results 2 Results 7 Results 23 Results 42
Results
          V8         V9        V10
1 36 Results 22 Results 28 Results

I just need the numbers as a vector.

Excel can do it with a few lines of VBA, but there must be a way to do it
directly in R, would make things easier.

Thanks a lot!
 jorgusch
Patrick Connolly
#
On Tue, 11-Aug-2009 at 01:39AM -0700, jorgusch wrote:
|> 
|> Hello,
|> 
|> For not too regular users of R, preparing the data is somehow a burden.
|> 
|> Comming from iMacro in FireFox I get a badly designed csv, which I need to
|> put into a daily R script. 
|> The data looks like that (e.g.):


How did you get from here

|> 22 Results,"35 Results","39 Results","2 Results","7 Results","23
|> Results","42 Results","36 Results","22 Results","28 Results"
|> 
|> and R does this to it:


to here?

|>              V1         V2         V3        V4        V5         V6        
|> V7
|> 1 ???22 Results 35 Results 39 Results 2 Results 7 Results 23 Results 42
|> Results
|>           V8         V9        V10
|> 1 36 Results 22 Results 28 Results

It's probably easy enough to do but we don't have anything repeatable to use.

If I make a csv file from the text string and call it junk.csv, I can
get a vector of numbers like this:
[1]  22  35  39   2   7  23  42  36 221  28
But there's probably more general ways if we knew more about your
position.  It's likely you could use the clipboard instead of the
junk.csv text file.

HTH



|> 
|> I just need the numbers as a vector.
|> 
|> Excel can do it with a few lines of VBA, but there must be a way to do it
|> directly in R, would make things easier.
|> 
|> Thanks a lot!
|>  jorgusch
|> -- 
|> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Slicing-cra**y-csv-files-tp24913849p24913849.html
|> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
|> 
|> ______________________________________________
|> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
|> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
|> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
|> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
John Kane
# 
There was a couple of strange characters in the post so I am not sure that I understand exactly what the data looks like but if you are getting a vector of results that look like
"22 Results","35 Results","39 Results","2 Results","7 Results","23 Results", "42 Results","36 Results","22 Results","28 Results"


Then I think that something like this will work where x is your data.

x <- c("22 Results","35 Results","39 Results","2 Results","7 Results","23 Results", "42 Results","36 Results","22 Results","28 Results")
x1 <- strsplit(x, " ")  
x2  <- as.data.frame(do.call("rbind",x1)) 

(chiffres <- as.numeric(as.character(x2[,1]))
--- On Tue, 8/11/09, jorgusch <hackl.schorsch at web.de> wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        
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      jorgusch
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
First of all, sorry for not giving all information.

Secondly, thanks a lot. This is a real help!! I did not know, that you can
use names...
This is really simple and works great!!!

If anyone is close enough to the people writing the help in R, please tell
them that they should write a tutorial for such scenarios. 
I mean, R can be as fancy and amazing statistical programm as it is, but not
getting the data in properly in first place, makes it kind of useless.

jorgusch

        
Patrick Connolly-4 wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Patrick Connolly
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
On Wed, 12-Aug-2009 at 03:36AM -0700, jorgusch wrote:

        
|> 
|> First of all, sorry for not giving all information.
|> 
|> Secondly, thanks a lot. This is a real help!! I did not know, that you can
|> use names...
|> This is really simple and works great!!!
|> 
|> If anyone is close enough to the people writing the help in R, please tell
|> them that they should write a tutorial for such scenarios. 

Well, do you understand how it works?  It's not much like the standard
use of dataframes.  It just so happens that a feature of dataframes
and the way they're usually read into R could be used for your task.
Did you notice that the method creates a dataframe with no rows?
Generally not much use, but it was in your case.  It would be an
astounding tutorial writer who managed to think that such a use would
be useful for someone in, as the airlines say, such a rare event.
I've never had use of it myself.

If I devised a way of using, say pliers, to open a jar, would it be
fair to expect the manufacturers of the pliers to put that into the
accompanying instructions?


|> I mean, R can be as fancy and amazing statistical programm as it
|> is, but not qgetting the data in properly in first place, makes it
|> kind of useless.

It has loads of methods of getting the data into the form for
analysis, and, in any case, you can always get your money back if
you're not satisfied.




|> 
|> jorgusch
|> 
|> 
|>

        
|> Patrick Connolly-4 wrote:

        
|> >

        
|> > On Tue, 11-Aug-2009 at 01:39AM -0700, jorgusch wrote:

        
|> > 
|> > |> 
|> > |> Hello,
|> > |> 
|> > |> For not too regular users of R, preparing the data is somehow a burden.
|> > |> 
|> > |> Comming from iMacro in FireFox I get a badly designed csv, which I need
|> > to
|> > |> put into a daily R script. 
|> > |> The data looks like that (e.g.):
|> > 
|> > 
|> > How did you get from here
|> > 
|> > |> 22 Results,"35 Results","39 Results","2 Results","7 Results","23
|> > |> Results","42 Results","36 Results","22 Results","28 Results"
|> > |> 
|> > |> and R does this to it:
|> > 
|> > 
|> > to here?
|> > 
|> > |>              V1         V2         V3        V4        V5         V6        
|> > |> V7
|> > |> 1 ???22 Results 35 Results 39 Results 2 Results 7 Results 23 Results 42
|> > |> Results
|> > |>           V8         V9        V10
|> > |> 1 36 Results 22 Results 28 Results
|> > 
|> > It's probably easy enough to do but we don't have anything repeatable to
|> > use.
|> > 
|> > If I make a csv file from the text string and call it junk.csv, I can
|> > get a vector of numbers like this:
|> > 
|> >> as.numeric(gsub("[A-z.]", "", names(read.csv("junk.csv"))))
|> >  [1]  22  35  39   2   7  23  42  36 221  28
|> >> 
|> > 
|> > But there's probably more general ways if we knew more about your
|> > position.  It's likely you could use the clipboard instead of the
|> > junk.csv text file.
|> > 
|> > HTH
|> > 
|> > 
|> > 
|> > |> 
|> > |> I just need the numbers as a vector.
|> > |> 
|> > |> Excel can do it with a few lines of VBA, but there must be a way to do
|> > it
|> > |> directly in R, would make things easier.
|> > |> 
|> > |> Thanks a lot!
|> > |>  jorgusch
|> > |> -- 
|> > |> View this message in context:
|> > http://www.nabble.com/Slicing-cra**y-csv-files-tp24913849p24913849.html
|> > |> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
|> > |> 
|> > |> ______________________________________________
|> > |> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
|> > |> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
|> > |> PLEASE do read the posting guide
|> > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
|> > |> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
|> > 
|> > -- 
|> > ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.   
|> >    ___    Patrick Connolly   
|> >  {~._.~}                   Great minds discuss ideas    
|> >  _( Y )_  	         Average minds discuss events 
|> > (:_~*~_:)                  Small minds discuss people  
|> >  (_)-(_)  	                      ..... Eleanor Roosevelt
|> > 	  
|> > ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
|> > 
|> > ______________________________________________
|> > R-help at r-project.org mailing list
|> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
|> > PLEASE do read the posting guide
|> > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
|> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
|> > 
|> > 
|> 
|> -- 
|> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Slicing-cra**y-csv-files-tp24913849p24933830.html
|> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
|> 
|> ______________________________________________
|> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
|> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
|> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
|> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      jorgusch
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
Patrick Connolly-4 wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Sure I did, but once data is in R in a proper format, you can create rows
with R tools quite easily. Though, getting first step done, is not always
obvious to me. 
Maybe this is a extrem case, but the files I get hardly ever work with
read.table and it is done. People outside of R do not prepare it well
enough...

        
Patrick Connolly-4 wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
No doubt that I believe you on this matter! I did not want to complain in
general, but R could make it easier for newbies. R does great analysis but
preparing the data has to occur for good parts by hand. On this matter other
programs do a slightly better job.
I am only saying that a wide tutorial on preparing and filtering data would
be helpful. 

My critique sounded a bit harsh, I apologize for that, but please see that
for newcomers with little programming experience the point of frustration is
getting the stuff into R and the help function is not a great help for that.
My colleques and I in our class on introduction in R, usually do not fail
using the stuff we learned but in preparing the data for the use of the
function.

It is like a magic barriere R keeps or wants to keep alive. These are just
my two cents.

Anyway, I thank you a lot for your advice and it will be well remembered.

        
Patrick Connolly-4 wrote: