R help - May 2001 - Scanning data lines with blanks in character vars

Hello, I'm trying to read data in from a file using scan(). The last field
is a
character string that contains blanks. I had read it in in S-Plus using this
code:

ifile <- list(entry=0,measure=0,st=0,count=0,score=0,
           error=0,inmsq=0,instd=0,outms=0,outstd=0,displc=0,ptbis=0,a=0,
        r="",name="")
if.widths <- c(1, 5, 8, 3, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 2, 2, 85)
d1 <- scan(file=fd,ifile,flush=T,skip=0,widths=if.widths)

The name variable is a character string that contains blanks, is of varying
length (maximum length is 85), varying number of words and is not surrounded by
quotes. It always starts at position 84 on the line and goes to the end of the
line.

This used to work in S-Plus 3.4 in SunOS (but it seems not to anymore, since we
moved to version 5 -- but that's besides the point). Anyway, since there is
no
widths= in scan() in R, how do I read in a string containing blanks?
______________________________________________________________________
Stuart Luppescu         -=-=-  University of Chicago
$(B:MJ8$HCRF`H~$NIc(B        -=-=-  s-luppescu at uchicago.edu
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>> Sent on 10-May-2001 at 15:08:04 with xfmail
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s-luppescu at uchicago.edu writes:
> Hello, I'm trying to read data in from a file using scan(). The last
field is a
> character string that contains blanks. I had read it in in S-Plus using
this
> code:
> 
> ifile <- list(entry=0,measure=0,st=0,count=0,score=0,
>            error=0,inmsq=0,instd=0,outms=0,outstd=0,displc=0,ptbis=0,a=0,
>         r="",name="")
> if.widths <- c(1, 5, 8, 3, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 2, 2, 85)
> d1 <- scan(file=fd,ifile,flush=T,skip=0,widths=if.widths)
> 
> The name variable is a character string that contains blanks, is of varying
> length (maximum length is 85), varying number of words and is not
surrounded by
> quotes. It always starts at position 84 on the line and goes to the end of
the
> line.
> 
> This used to work in S-Plus 3.4 in SunOS (but it seems not to anymore,
since we
> moved to version 5 -- but that's besides the point). Anyway, since
there is no
> widths= in scan() in R, how do I read in a string containing blanks?

have a look at read.fwf (doesn't have a what=argument, though)

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907
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On Thu, 10 May 2001 s-luppescu at uchicago.edu wrote:
> Hello, I'm trying to read data in from a file using scan(). The last
field is a
> character string that contains blanks. I had read it in in S-Plus using
this
> code:
>
> ifile <- list(entry=0,measure=0,st=0,count=0,score=0,
>            error=0,inmsq=0,instd=0,outms=0,outstd=0,displc=0,ptbis=0,a=0,
>         r="",name="")
> if.widths <- c(1, 5, 8, 3, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 2, 2, 85)
> d1 <- scan(file=fd,ifile,flush=T,skip=0,widths=if.widths)
>
> The name variable is a character string that contains blanks, is of varying
> length (maximum length is 85), varying number of words and is not
surrounded by
> quotes. It always starts at position 84 on the line and goes to the end of
the
> line.
>
> This used to work in S-Plus 3.4 in SunOS (but it seems not to anymore,
since we
> moved to version 5 -- but that's besides the point). Anyway, since
there is no
> widths= in scan() in R, how do I read in a string containing blanks?
Please see the code for read.fwf for how this is done.

-- 
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 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

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