R devel - Aug 2011 - Problem exporting table with many columns to dbf

Hello,

I'm newbie in R and I have a problem exporting a table with many columns to
a dbf file.
I found an error when I open the result DBF file on other software and also
importing it on R again.

Here a example snippet of the problem (on a GNU/Linux OS):
http://pastebin.com/0SMJqqwb

Is it a bug?

Thank you,
Nacho V

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Nacho Uve <nachouve <at> gmail.com> writes:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I'm newbie in R and I have a problem exporting a table with many
columns to
> a dbf file.
In many sources, the maximum number of fields is said to be 128 or 255. I have
seen a reference to 1024. It varies a great deal with the software being used.
DBF is certainly not a good choice for writing objects with many columns. The
page refered to on ?write.dbf:

http://www.clicketyclick.dk/databases/xbase/format/dbf.html#DBF_STRUCT

gives 128 fields; on googling for "DBF maximum number of fields", I
see that:

http://www.rhinocerus.net/forum/lang-clipper/193953-maximum-fields-per-record-dbf.html

gets to 1023/4, but there are reports of very varying behaviour across different
applications. Anything over 128 may be tempting fate.
> I found an error when I open the result DBF file on other software and also
> importing it on R again.
> 
> Here a example snippet of the problem (on a GNU/Linux OS):
> http://pastebin.com/0SMJqqwb
> 
> Is it a bug?
No, more an infelicity of a legacy format with unspecified extensions.

Hope this clarifies,

Roger
> 
> Thank you,
> Nacho V