I had a question about scan in R. For better code readability, I would like to have lines in the block of data to be scanned that are commented - not just lines that have a comment at the end. For example #age, weight, height 33,128,65 34,56,155 instead of having to do something like 33,128,65 #age, weight, height 34,56,155 Is this at all possible?
On 11/27/2006 7:25 PM, Jarrett Byrnes wrote:> I had a question about scan in R. For better code readability, I > would like to have lines in the block of data to be scanned that are > commented - not just lines that have a comment at the end. For example > > #age, weight, height > 33,128,65 > 34,56,155 > > instead of having to do something like > > 33,128,65 #age, weight, height > 34,56,155 > > > Is this at all possible?If it's on the first line, it's easy: just use skip=1 to skip the first line. The general case #age, weight, height 33,128,65 # and now for something completely different 34,56,155 probably needs something like this: scan("foo", what=list(0,0,0), comment.char="#", sep=",", multi.line=T) i.e. you need to tell it how many objects are in a record, and allow records to span multiple lines. Watch out for typos in the file that put different numbers of entries on each line, because scan() won't complain about it. Duncan Murdoch
From ?scan : If |comment.char| occurs (except inside a quoted character field), it signals that the rest of the line should be regarded as a comment and be discarded. Lines beginning with a comment character (possibly after white space with the default separator) are treated as blank lines. So, set comment.char="#" and you should be fine. Cheers, Simon. Jarrett Byrnes wrote:> I had a question about scan in R. For better code readability, I > would like to have lines in the block of data to be scanned that are > commented - not just lines that have a comment at the end. For example > > #age, weight, height > 33,128,65 > 34,56,155 > > instead of having to do something like > > 33,128,65 #age, weight, height > 34,56,155 > > > Is this at all possible? > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > >-- Simon Blomberg, B.Sc.(Hons.), Ph.D, M.App.Stat. Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia T: +61 2 6125 7800 email: Simon.Blomberg_at_anu.edu.au F: +61 2 6125 0757 CRICOS Provider # 00120C The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data. - John Tukey.
You may want to set blank.lines.skip=TRUE too. Simon.> From ?scan : > > If |comment.char| occurs (except inside a quoted character field), it > signals that the rest of the line should be regarded as a comment and be > discarded. Lines beginning with a comment character (possibly after > white space with the default separator) are treated as blank lines. > > So, set comment.char="#" > > and you should be fine. > > Cheers, > > Simon. > > Jarrett Byrnes wrote:> I had a question about scan in R. For better code readability, I > would like to have lines in the block of data to be scanned that are > commented - not just lines that have a comment at the end. For example > > #age, weight, height > 33,128,65 > 34,56,155 > > instead of having to do something like > > 33,128,65 #age, weight, height > 34,56,155 > > > Is this at all possible? > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > >-- Simon Blomberg, B.Sc.(Hons.), Ph.D, M.App.Stat. Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia T: +61 2 6125 7800 email: Simon.Blomberg_at_anu.edu.au F: +61 2 6125 0757 CRICOS Provider # 00120C The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data. - John Tukey.