R help - May 2006 - Now another question regarding the Foreign package

Hi,

Because I'm new to R and trying to move off of SPSS, I have another
question.  I downloaded the "Foreign" package which I understand reads
in various datasets from programs such as SPSS and SAS.  There isn't much
documentation that I can find regarding the specifics of this in the online
docs, but I assume that it is like read.table.  So, here is what I wrote and
here is what I got.

 bw2 <- read.spss("c:\birthwt.sav")
Error: couldn't find function "read.spss"

Any thoughts?

Thanks again for your help.

David


	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

On 05/11/06 15:42, David Kaplan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Because I'm new to R and trying to move off of SPSS, I have another
question.  I
> downloaded the "Foreign" package which I understand reads in
various datasets from
> programs such as SPSS and SAS.  There isn't much documentation that I
can find
> regarding the specifics of this in the online docs, but I assume that it is
like
Look in the help files for the package.
> read.table.  So, here is what I wrote and here is what I got.
> 
>  bw2 <- read.spss("c:\birthwt.sav")
> Error: couldn't find function "read.spss"
> 
> Any thoughts?
You need to install the package, not just download it.

Then you need to load it into your R session:
library("foreign")

Did you do that?

-- 
Jonathan Baron, Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Home page: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~baron

Use library(foreign), not capital letter F.

You may try spss.get function in Hmisc package.

Philip He
Vanderbilt University

On 5/11/06, David Kaplan <dkaplan@udel.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Because I'm new to R and trying to move off of SPSS, I have another
> question.  I downloaded the "Foreign" package which I understand
reads in
> various datasets from programs such as SPSS and SAS.  There isn't much
> documentation that I can find regarding the specifics of this in the online
> docs, but I assume that it is like read.table.  So, here is what I wrote
> and here is what I got.
>
> bw2 <- read.spss("c:\birthwt.sav")
> Error: couldn't find function "read.spss"
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks again for your help.
>
> David
>
>
>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide!
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Dear David

I suspect you downloaded 'foreign' but you didn't load it to your
workspace.
  To do that you have to use library(foreign).  Then you can have access to 
the functions in that package.
In addition to the manuals that come with R (Help->Manuals (in pdf)) there 
is a wealth of reading material available on the R homepage under 
'Documentation'.  A good starting point is to buy one of the books 
recommended in the books section.

I hope this helps

Francisco

>From: "David Kaplan" <dkaplan at udel.edu>
>To: <r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
>Subject: [R] Now another question regarding the Foreign package
>Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 15:42:34 -0400
>
>Hi,
>
>Because I'm new to R and trying to move off of SPSS, I have another 
>question.  I downloaded the "Foreign" package which I understand
reads in
>various datasets from programs such as SPSS and SAS.  There isn't much 
>documentation that I can find regarding the specifics of this in the online 
>docs, but I assume that it is like read.table.  So, here is what I wrote 
>and here is what I got.
>
>  bw2 <- read.spss("c:\birthwt.sav")
>Error: couldn't find function "read.spss"
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>Thanks again for your help.
>
>David
>
>
>	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
>______________________________________________
>R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>PLEASE do read the posting guide! 
>http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html