R help - Jul 2015 - write.table with append=T after using cat on same file

Hi, 

For years I've been writing text to the beginning of files with
cat(append=F) , then following that text with data written by
write.table(append=T).  It is now giving me an error message.  I'm using
R-3.1.2.  What gives?

df <- data.frame(x = 1, y = 1:10, z = 10:1)
cat(file="junk.txt", sep="", "# An introductory
note.\n")
write.table(df, file="junk.txt", sep=",", append=T, quote=F,
row.names=F, col.names=F)

Error in file(file, ifelse(append, "a", "w")) : invalid
'open' argument

Thanks,
Scott Waichler
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA  USA

I do not get an error with R-3.2.1 on Mac OS. You may have done something prior
to this code so that perhaps F is not FALSE or T is not TRUE.

R. Mark Sharp, Ph.D.
msharp at TxBiomed.org




> On Jul 27, 2015, at 3:32 PM, Waichler, Scott R <Scott.Waichler at
pnnl.gov> wrote:
> 
> Hi, 
> 
> For years I've been writing text to the beginning of files with
cat(append=F) , then following that text with data written by
write.table(append=T).  It is now giving me an error message.  I'm using
R-3.1.2.  What gives?
> 
> df <- data.frame(x = 1, y = 1:10, z = 10:1)
> cat(file="junk.txt", sep="", "# An introductory
note.\n")
> write.table(df, file="junk.txt", sep=",", append=T,
quote=F, row.names=F, col.names=F)
> 
> Error in file(file, ifelse(append, "a", "w")) : invalid
'open' argument
> 
> Thanks,
> Scott Waichler
> Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
> Richland, WA  USA
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> 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.

This will happen if you have redefined 'T':
  > T <- 101:104
  > write.table(df, file="junk.txt", sep=",", append=T,
quote=F,
row.names=F, col.names=F)
  Error in file(file, ifelse(append, "a", "w")) : invalid
'open' argument
Use 'TRUE' and 'FALSE' instead of 'T' and 'F'
this sort of problem.


Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com

On Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 1:32 PM, Waichler, Scott R <Scott.Waichler at
pnnl.gov>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> For years I've been writing text to the beginning of files with
> cat(append=F) , then following that text with data written by
> write.table(append=T).  It is now giving me an error message.  I'm
using
> R-3.1.2.  What gives?
>
> df <- data.frame(x = 1, y = 1:10, z = 10:1)
> cat(file="junk.txt", sep="", "# An introductory
note.\n")
> write.table(df, file="junk.txt", sep=",", append=T,
quote=F, row.names=F,
> col.names=F)
>
> Error in file(file, ifelse(append, "a", "w")) : invalid
'open' argument
>
> Thanks,
> Scott Waichler
> Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
> Richland, WA  USA
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> 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.
>
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Missing words:
  Use 'TRUE' and 'FALSE' instead of 'T' and 'F'
>to avoid< this sort of
problem

Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com

On Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 1:50 PM, William Dunlap <wdunlap at tibco.com>
wrote:
> This will happen if you have redefined 'T':
>   > T <- 101:104
>   > write.table(df, file="junk.txt", sep=",",
append=T, quote=F,
> row.names=F, col.names=F)
>   Error in file(file, ifelse(append, "a", "w")) :
invalid 'open' argument
> Use 'TRUE' and 'FALSE' instead of 'T' and
'F' this sort of problem.
>
>
> Bill Dunlap
> TIBCO Software
> wdunlap tibco.com
>
> On Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 1:32 PM, Waichler, Scott R <
> Scott.Waichler at pnnl.gov> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> For years I've been writing text to the beginning of files with
>> cat(append=F) , then following that text with data written by
>> write.table(append=T).  It is now giving me an error message.  I'm
using
>> R-3.1.2.  What gives?
>>
>> df <- data.frame(x = 1, y = 1:10, z = 10:1)
>> cat(file="junk.txt", sep="", "# An
introductory note.\n")
>> write.table(df, file="junk.txt", sep=",", append=T,
quote=F, row.names=F,
>> col.names=F)
>>
>> Error in file(file, ifelse(append, "a", "w")) :
invalid 'open' argument
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Scott Waichler
>> Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
>> Richland, WA  USA
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>> 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.
>>
>
>
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Hi

Your example works for me. Error is on your side.

Try ?traceback or start with plain R -vanilla or upgrade R.
> sessionInfo()
R Under development (unstable) (2015-06-15 r68521)
Platform: i386-w64-mingw32/i386 (32-bit)
Running under: Windows XP (build 2600) Service Pack 3

locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=Czech_Czech Republic.1250  LC_CTYPE=Czech_Czech Republic.1250
[3] LC_MONETARY=Czech_Czech Republic.1250 LC_NUMERIC=C
[5] LC_TIME=Czech_Czech Republic.1250

attached base packages:
[1] stats     datasets  utils     grDevices graphics  methods   base

other attached packages:
[1] lattice_0.20-31 fun_0.1

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] Rcpp_0.11.6      digest_0.6.8     MASS_7.3-40      grid_3.3.0
 [5] plyr_1.8.3       nlme_3.1-120     gtable_0.1.2     magrittr_1.5
 [9] scales_0.2.5     ggplot2_1.0.1    stringi_0.4-1    reshape2_1.4.1
[13] proto_0.3-10     tools_3.3.0      stringr_1.0.0    munsell_0.4.2
[17] colorspace_1.2-6
> version
               _
platform       i386-w64-mingw32
arch           i386
os             mingw32
system         i386, mingw32
status         Under development (unstable)
major          3
minor          3.0
year           2015
month          06
day            15
svn rev        68521
language       R
version.string R Under development (unstable) (2015-06-15 r68521)
nickname       Unsuffered Consequences

Cheers
Petr

> -----Original Message-----
> From: R-help [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of
> Waichler, Scott R
> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2015 10:32 PM
> To: R. Help
> Subject: [R] write.table with append=T after using cat on same file
>
> Hi,
>
> For years I've been writing text to the beginning of files with
> cat(append=F) , then following that text with data written by
> write.table(append=T).  It is now giving me an error message.  I'm
> using R-3.1.2.  What gives?
>
> df <- data.frame(x = 1, y = 1:10, z = 10:1)
> cat(file="junk.txt", sep="", "# An introductory
note.\n")
> write.table(df, file="junk.txt", sep=",", append=T,
quote=F,
> row.names=F, col.names=F)
>
> Error in file(file, ifelse(append, "a", "w")) : invalid
'open' argument
>
> Thanks,
> Scott Waichler
> Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
> Richland, WA  USA
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> 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.
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