R help - Apr 2010 - read.table understands comment field and ignores text

Hi I'm trying to import a large csv file without quotes around each field. 
This creates some problems when there are "#" characters in certain
strings
as R understands its comment field and ignores the rest of the line.

Here's an example:

var1, var2, var3, var4
one, two, three, four

  Use this in R to get off clipboard:

  read.table("clipboard", header=F,
sep=",",na.strings=c("NULL", ""),
dec=".", strip.white=TRUE, fill=T)

Now try it with this table:

var1, var2, var3, var4
one#, two, three, four

Notice R ignores everything after the # character.  Is this something that
can be fixed?




-- 
View this message in context:
http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/read-table-understands-comment-field-and-ignores-text-tp2021036p2021036.html
Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

On Apr 22, 2010, at 2:05 PM, Jack T. wrote:
> 
> Hi I'm trying to import a large csv file without quotes around each
field.
> This creates some problems when there are "#" characters in
certain strings
> as R understands its comment field and ignores the rest of the line.
> 
> Here's an example:
> 
> var1, var2, var3, var4
> one, two, three, four
> 
>  Use this in R to get off clipboard:
> 
>  read.table("clipboard", header=F,
sep=",",na.strings=c("NULL", ""),
> dec=".", strip.white=TRUE, fill=T)
> 
> Now try it with this table:
> 
> var1, var2, var3, var4
> one#, two, three, four
> 
> Notice R ignores everything after the # character.  Is this something that
> can be fixed?

Change the 'comment.char' argument to "":

  read.table(...., comment.char = "")

See ?read.table for more information.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz

On Apr 22, 2010, at 3:05 PM, Jack T. wrote:
>
> Hi I'm trying to import a large csv file without quotes around each  
> field.
> This creates some problems when there are "#" characters in
certain
> strings
> as R understands its comment field and ignores the rest of the line.
>
> Here's an example:
>
> var1, var2, var3, var4
> one, two, three, four
>
>  Use this in R to get off clipboard:
>
>  read.table("clipboard", header=F,
sep=",",na.strings=c("NULL", ""),
> dec=".", strip.white=TRUE, fill=T)
>
> Now try it with this table:
>
> var1, var2, var3, var4
> one#, two, three, four
>
> Notice R ignores everything after the # character.  Is this  
> something that
> can be fixed?
?read.table

Read the documentation with particular attention to comment.char

-- 
>
>
David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT

Oh man, totally missed that one!  Thanks so much for the reminder.
-- 
View this message in context:
http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/read-table-understands-comment-field-and-ignores-text-tp2021036p2021055.html
Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.