R devel - Mar 2003 - write.table row.names and col.names (PR#2610)

Full_Name: Wolfgang Huber
Version: 1.6.2
OS: DEC OSF, Win, Linux
Submission from: (NULL) (155.52.45.139)


When data.frames are written to a file using write.table and with row.names and
col.names, then the colnames are displaced by 1 with respect to column content.
Example:

> x = data.frame(
>   obscht=c("chriesi", "bire"),
>     gmues=c("chrut","hoerdoepfl"))
> rownames(x) = c("huet", "morn")
> write.table(x, file="test.txt", sep="\t", quote=F)
The table x now looks like:
> x
      obscht      gmues
huet chriesi      chrut
morn    bire hoerdoepfl

but the file is as follows, and the column names will be confused when reading
this file e.g. from Excel.

obscht	gmues
huet	chriesi	chrut
morn	bire	hoerdoepfl

On Thu, Mar 06, 2003 at 06:41:38PM +0100, w.huber@dkfz.de
wrote:
> When data.frames are written to a file using write.table and with row.names
and
> col.names, then the colnames are displaced by 1 with respect to column
content.
> Example:
> 
> 
> > x = data.frame(
> >   obscht=c("chriesi", "bire"),
> >     gmues=c("chrut","hoerdoepfl"))
> > rownames(x) = c("huet", "morn")
> > write.table(x, file="test.txt", sep="\t", quote=F)
> 
> The table x now looks like:
> > x
>       obscht      gmues
> huet chriesi      chrut
> morn    bire hoerdoepfl
> 
> but the file is as follows, and the column names will be confused when
reading
> this file e.g. from Excel.
> 
> obscht	gmues
> huet	chriesi	chrut
> morn	bire	hoerdoepfl
AFAIK that is a feature. Look at the example(write.table), it does precisely
this and gets data back and forth to Excel.  

Dirk

-- 
Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. 
				             -- Niels Bohr

On Thu, 6 Mar 2003, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
> AFAIK that is a feature. Look at the example(write.table), it does
precisely
> this and gets data back and forth to Excel.  
> 
Hi Dirk,

thanks! Seems I should have better read the documentation, sorry for 
wasting your time.

I had never been sure whether the default behavior of write.table was a
bug or a feature and as this topic had come up today again, someone had
encouraged me to submit a bug report :)

Best regards
Wolfgang

There was no need to send this twice: this is also PR#2611.

This _is_ the documented behaviour, and it _is_ also discussed in the R
Import/Export Manual.  ?write.table says:

     Normally there is no column name for a column of row names.  If
     `col.names=NA' a blank column name is added.  This can be used to
     write CSV files for input to spreadsheets.

Please _only_ send messages once and _only_ after reading at least the 
help page.  Your lack of reading is not a bug in R.

On Thu, 6 Mar 2003 w.huber@dkfz.de wrote:
> Full_Name: Wolfgang Huber
> Version: 1.6.2
> OS: DEC OSF, Win, Linux
> Submission from: (NULL) (155.52.45.139)
> 
> 
> When data.frames are written to a file using write.table and with row.names
and
> col.names, then the colnames are displaced by 1 with respect to column
content.
> Example:
> 
> 
> > x = data.frame(
> >   obscht=c("chriesi", "bire"),
> >     gmues=c("chrut","hoerdoepfl"))
> > rownames(x) = c("huet", "morn")
> > write.table(x, file="test.txt", sep="\t", quote=F)
> 
> The table x now looks like:
> > x
>       obscht      gmues
> huet chriesi      chrut
> morn    bire hoerdoepfl
> 
> but the file is as follows, and the column names will be confused when
reading
> this file e.g. from Excel.
> 
> obscht	gmues
> huet	chriesi	chrut
> morn	bire	hoerdoepfl
The separators are not visible there.  Try
>  write.table(x, file="", sep=",", quote=F)
obscht,gmues
huet,chriesi,chrut
morn,bire,hoerdoepfl

to see what is really going on.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

>From ?write.table:
     Normally there is no column name for a column of row names.  If
     `col.names=NA' a blank column name is added.  This can be used to
     write CSV files for input to spreadsheets.

-Greg
> -----Original Message-----
> From: w.huber@dkfz.de [mailto:w.huber@dkfz.de]
> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 12:42 PM
> To: r-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch
> Cc: R-bugs@biostat.ku.dk
> Subject: [Rd] write.table row.names and col.names (PR#2610)
> 
> 
> Full_Name: Wolfgang Huber
> Version: 1.6.2
> OS: DEC OSF, Win, Linux
> Submission from: (NULL) (155.52.45.139)
> 
> 
> When data.frames are written to a file using write.table and 
> with row.names and
> col.names, then the colnames are displaced by 1 with respect 
> to column content.
> Example:
> 
> 
> > x = data.frame(
> >   obscht=c("chriesi", "bire"),
> >     gmues=c("chrut","hoerdoepfl"))
> > rownames(x) = c("huet", "morn")
> > write.table(x, file="test.txt", sep="\t", quote=F)
> 
> The table x now looks like:
> > x
>       obscht      gmues
> huet chriesi      chrut
> morn    bire hoerdoepfl
> 
> but the file is as follows, and the column names will be 
> confused when reading
> this file e.g. from Excel.
> 
> obscht	gmues
> huet	chriesi	chrut
> morn	bire	hoerdoepfl
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> 

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