R devel - Nov 2007 - Col.names parameter in write.csv (PR#10411)

Full_Name: Kingsley Oteng-Amoako
Version: 2.5.1
OS: Windows 5.1.2600 (Windows XP)
Submission from: (NULL) (203.185.215.144)


The col.names=false in the write.csv command does not work as documented.
Attempting to write a vector to a csv file without column headers does not work
as documented. 

The col.names=false feature on the write.table command does however work and it
can thus be coerced into behaving like the write.csv command - which suggests
that there is  a simple error with the write.csv command code.

kingsley.oteng-amoako at macquarie.com wrote:
> Full_Name: Kingsley Oteng-Amoako
> Version: 2.5.1
> OS: Windows 5.1.2600 (Windows XP)
> Submission from: (NULL) (203.185.215.144)
>
>
> The col.names=false in the write.csv command does not work as documented.
> Attempting to write a vector to a csv file without column headers does not
work
> as documented. 
>
> The col.names=false feature on the write.table command does however work
and it
> can thus be coerced into behaving like the write.csv command - which
suggests
> that there is  a simple error with the write.csv command code.
>   
No, this is exacly as documented:


    'write.csv' and 'write.csv2' provide convenience wrappers
for
     writing CSV files.  They set 'sep', 'dec' and
'qmethod', and
     'col.names' to 'NA' if 'row.names = TRUE' and
'TRUE' otherwise.
.....
     These wrappers are deliberately inflexible: they are designed to
     ensure that the correct conventions are used to write a valid
     file. Attempts to change 'col.names', 'sep', 'dec'
or 'qmethod'
     are ignored, with a warning.

(I forget whether the warning bit is new in 2.6.x, though)

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             ?ster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark          Ph:  (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)                  FAX: (+45) 35327907

On Fri, 9 Nov 2007, Peter Dalgaard wrote:
> kingsley.oteng-amoako at macquarie.com wrote:
>> Full_Name: Kingsley Oteng-Amoako
>> Version: 2.5.1
>> OS: Windows 5.1.2600 (Windows XP)
>> Submission from: (NULL) (203.185.215.144)
>>
>>
>> The col.names=false in the write.csv command does not work as
documented.
>> Attempting to write a vector to a csv file without column headers does
not work
>> as documented.
>>
>> The col.names=false feature on the write.table command does however
work and it
>> can thus be coerced into behaving like the write.csv command - which
suggests
>> that there is  a simple error with the write.csv command code.
>>
> No, this is exacly as documented:
>
>
>    'write.csv' and 'write.csv2' provide convenience
wrappers for
>     writing CSV files.  They set 'sep', 'dec' and
'qmethod', and
>     'col.names' to 'NA' if 'row.names = TRUE' and
'TRUE' otherwise.
> .....
>     These wrappers are deliberately inflexible: they are designed to
>     ensure that the correct conventions are used to write a valid
>     file. Attempts to change 'col.names', 'sep',
'dec' or 'qmethod'
>     are ignored, with a warning.
>
> (I forget whether the warning bit is new in 2.6.x, though)
It is unchanged since June 2005, and appeared in this form in R 2.2.0.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at 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