R help - Apr 2007 - read.table with more than one sep

Dear List,

somebody knows, if the following operation can be done in an easier way?

The data rows which should be read into R look like that:

4547;1970.01.01 00:00-1970.01.01 01:00;   noData

Unitil now we are doing this procedure:

1. Dividing columns which are separated by ";"

=>  temp <- read.table(file ,sep=';', na.strings='noData',
strip.white=TRUE)
=> write(temp, temp.txt)

2. Dividing colums which are separated by "-"

=>  temp <- read.table(temp.txt ,sep='-',
na.strings='noData',
strip.white=TRUE)
=> write(temp, temp.txt)

3. Dividing colums which are separated by " "

=>  temp <- read.table(temp.txt ,sep=' ',
na.strings='noData',
strip.white=TRUE)

I can imagine that there should be a way to do this more efficient.

Thanks for help in advance.

Jan Schwanbeck

University of Berne
Institute of Geography

Try this:

# test data
Input <- "4547;1970.01.01 00:00-1970.01.01 01:00;   noData
4547;1970.01.01 00:00-1970.01.01 01:00;   noData"

# replace next line with Lines <- readLines("myfile.dat")
Lines <- readLines(textConnection(Input))

Lines <- gsub("[;-]", " ", Lines)
read.table(textConnection(Lines))



On 4/19/07, Jan.Schwanbeck at hydrologie.unibe.ch
<Jan.Schwanbeck at hydrologie.unibe.ch> wrote:
>
> Dear List,
>
> somebody knows, if the following operation can be done in an easier way?
>
> The data rows which should be read into R look like that:
>
> 4547;1970.01.01 00:00-1970.01.01 01:00;   noData
>
> Unitil now we are doing this procedure:
>
> 1. Dividing columns which are separated by ";"
>
> =>  temp <- read.table(file ,sep=';',
na.strings='noData',
> strip.white=TRUE)
> => write(temp, temp.txt)
>
> 2. Dividing colums which are separated by "-"
>
> =>  temp <- read.table(temp.txt ,sep='-',
na.strings='noData',
> strip.white=TRUE)
> => write(temp, temp.txt)
>
> 3. Dividing colums which are separated by " "
>
> =>  temp <- read.table(temp.txt ,sep=' ',
na.strings='noData',
> strip.white=TRUE)
>
> I can imagine that there should be a way to do this more efficient.
>
> Thanks for help in advance.
>
> Jan Schwanbeck
>
> University of Berne
> Institute of Geography
>
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