R help - Nov 2005 - Fw: Re: Is there anything like a write.fwf() or possibility to print adata.frame without rownames?

> Hi
>
> can you please explain why do you need it? What do you want to do with the
exported file?
> 
> I wonder what type of software can not accept any reasonable delimiter and
requires fwf files.
>
> The only workaround I can imagine is to transfer all columns to character
and add leading spaces to each item which is > shorter than longest item in
specified column to equalize length of all items in column and then use
> 
> write.table( tab, "file.txt", sep=" ", row.names=F)
> 
> as suggested.
>
> But I still wonder why?
OK, I did not want to be to specific, but here it goes. I am using some 
"special" software for variance component estimation and prediction in
genetics. Programs are VCE and PEST (http://w3.tzv.fal.de/%7Eeg/) and
they both read data in FW (fixed width) format. For those programs
you can only give data in such format and it is really tedious to do so,
but that is the way it is. 
>
> If you used e.g.
> write.table( tab, "file.xls", sep="\t", row.names=F)
>
> you can open it directly by spreadsheet program just by clickung on it and
everything shall be properly aligned.
>
I am fully aware of this, but I do need FW format. I will try with sprintf(),
but
this looks very though for me.
> >>Petr Pikal wrote:
> >>> Hi
> >>>
> >>> did you tried something like
> >>>
> >>> write.table( tab, "file.txt", sep="\t",
row.names=F)
> >>>
> >>> which writes to tab separated file?
> >>>
> >>
> >>Petr thanks, but I do not want a tab delimited file. I need spaces
> >>between columns.
> >
> > write.table( tab, "file.txt", sep="", row.names=F)
> > Can it do what you want?
> 
> Ronggui thanks,
> 
> but this does not work also. For example I get something like
> this bellow
> 
> "26" "1" 42 "DA" "DA"
"lipa" "Monika"
> "26" "1" 42 "DA" "DA"
"lipa" "Monika"
> "27" "1" 41 "DA" "DA"
"smreka" "Monika"
> "27" "1" 41 "DA" "DA"
"smreka" "Monika"
> 
> and you can see, that there is a problem, when all "values"
> in a column do not have the same length. I need to get
> 
> "26" "1" 42 "DA" "DA"
"lipa"   "Monika"
> "26" "1" 42 "DA" "DA"
"lipa"   "Monika"
> "27" "1" 41 "DA" "DA"
"smreka" "Monika"
> "27" "1" 41 "DA" "DA"
"smreka" "Monika"
> 
> i.e. columns should be properly aligned.
> 
> Lep pozdrav / With regards,
>     Gregor Gorjanc
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> University of Ljubljana Biotechnical Faculty        URI:
> http://www.bfro.uni-lj.si/MR/ggorjan Zootechnical Department     mail:
> gregor.gorjanc <at> bfro.uni-lj.si Groblje 3                   tel:
> +386 (0)1 72 17 861 SI-1230 Domzale             fax: +386 (0)1 72 17
> 888 Slovenia, Europe
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> "One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it,
>  you have no certainty until you try." Sophocles ~ 450 B.C.
> 
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Petr Pikal
petr.pikal at precheza.cz

On 11/22/05, Gorjanc Gregor <Gregor.Gorjanc at bfro.uni-lj.si>
wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > can you please explain why do you need it? What do you want to do with
the exported file?
> >
> > I wonder what type of software can not accept any reasonable delimiter
and requires fwf files.
> >
> > The only workaround I can imagine is to transfer all columns to
character and add leading spaces to each item which is > shorter than longest
item in specified column to equalize length of all items in column and then use
> >
> > write.table( tab, "file.txt", sep=" ",
row.names=F)
> >
> > as suggested.
> >
> > But I still wonder why?
>
> OK, I did not want to be to specific, but here it goes. I am using some
> "special" software for variance component estimation and
prediction in
> genetics. Programs are VCE and PEST (http://w3.tzv.fal.de/%7Eeg/) and
> they both read data in FW (fixed width) format. For those programs
> you can only give data in such format and it is really tedious to do so,
> but that is the way it is.
>
> >
> > If you used e.g.
> > write.table( tab, "file.xls", sep="\t",
row.names=F)
> >
> > you can open it directly by spreadsheet program just by clickung on it
and everything shall be properly aligned.
> >
>
> I am fully aware of this, but I do need FW format. I will try with
sprintf(), but
> this looks very though for me.
>
> > >>Petr Pikal wrote:
> > >>> Hi
> > >>>
> > >>> did you tried something like
> > >>>
> > >>> write.table( tab, "file.txt",
sep="\t", row.names=F)
> > >>>
> > >>> which writes to tab separated file?
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >>Petr thanks, but I do not want a tab delimited file. I need
spaces
> > >>between columns.
> > >
> > > write.table( tab, "file.txt", sep="",
row.names=F)
> > > Can it do what you want?
> >
> > Ronggui thanks,
> >
> > but this does not work also. For example I get something like
> > this bellow
> >
> > "26" "1" 42 "DA" "DA"
"lipa" "Monika"
> > "26" "1" 42 "DA" "DA"
"lipa" "Monika"
> > "27" "1" 41 "DA" "DA"
"smreka" "Monika"
> > "27" "1" 41 "DA" "DA"
"smreka" "Monika"
> >
> > and you can see, that there is a problem, when all "values"
> > in a column do not have the same length. I need to get
> >
> > "26" "1" 42 "DA" "DA"
"lipa"   "Monika"
> > "26" "1" 42 "DA" "DA"
"lipa"   "Monika"
> > "27" "1" 41 "DA" "DA"
"smreka" "Monika"
> > "27" "1" 41 "DA" "DA"
"smreka" "Monika"
> >
> > i.e. columns should be properly aligned.
> >
Try this:
> irish <- head(iris)
> write(t(apply(irish, 2, format)), file = "", ncol = ncol(irish))
5.1 3.5 1.4 0.2 setosa
4.9 3.0 1.4 0.2 setosa
4.7 3.2 1.3 0.2 setosa
4.6 3.1 1.5 0.2 setosa
5.0 3.6 1.4 0.2 setosa
5.4 3.9 1.7 0.4 setosa

Hello!

Some time ago[1] I was aking about write.fwf or something similar. I
have now written a function[2] that does this job and it works
reasonably well. It is a bit slow, but works fine for me. Thanks to all,
who have helped me with this issue.

[1]https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2005-November/081597.html
[2]http://www.bfro.uni-lj.si/MR/ggorjan/software/R/index.html

-- 
Lep pozdrav / With regards,
    Gregor Gorjanc

----------------------------------------------------------------------
University of Ljubljana     PhD student
Biotechnical Faculty
Zootechnical Department     URI: http://www.bfro.uni-lj.si/MR/ggorjan
Groblje 3                   mail: gregor.gorjanc <at> bfro.uni-lj.si

SI-1230 Domzale             tel: +386 (0)1 72 17 861
Slovenia, Europe            fax: +386 (0)1 72 17 888

----------------------------------------------------------------------
"One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it,
 you have no certainty until you try." Sophocles ~ 450 B.C.