R help - Jul 2006 - as.data.frame question

I'm using the RODBC library to read in an Excel file using the
odbcConnectExcel function. I can read the Excel data prefectly, however all my
character variables get converted to factors when using
  my.data <- as.data.frame(sqlFetch(channel, "Sheet1"))
   
  I've tried using
  my.data <- as.data.frame(I(sqlFetch(channel, "Sheet1")))
   
  but this creates just one column of data. Is there an efficient way to read in
the character variables from my Excel data as characters rather than converting
them to factors.
   
  Any help is much appreciated.
   
  Regards,
   
  Harry
   

 		
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You shouldn't need the as.data.frame(), as sqlFetch() already returns
a data.frame.  You could try adding the as.is argument to sqlFetch()
(see how it's specified in ?read.table), or else convert them
afterward.

Andy 

From: ruser ruser
>  
>    
>   I'm using the RODBC library to read in an Excel file using 
> the odbcConnectExcel function. I can read the Excel data 
> prefectly, however all my character variables get converted 
> to factors when using
>   my.data <- as.data.frame(sqlFetch(channel, "Sheet1"))
>    
>   I've tried using
>   my.data <- as.data.frame(I(sqlFetch(channel, "Sheet1")))
>    
>   but this creates just one column of data. Is there an 
> efficient way to read in the character variables from my 
> Excel data as characters rather than converting them to factors.
>    
>   Any help is much appreciated.
>    
>   Regards,
>    
>   Harry
>    
> 
>  		
> ---------------------------------
> 
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
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