R help - Jun 2007 - Read Windows-like .INI files into R data structure?

I need to process some datasets where the configuration information was 
stored in .INI-like files, i.e., text files with sections like this:

[Section1]
var1=value1
var2=value2
[Section2]
A=value3
B=value4

...
>From Google and other searches I haven't found any package, or function 
within a package, that reads .INI files into an R list, or other data 
structure.



Any suggestions, or do I need to write my own?

efg

Earl F. Glynn
Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Earl:

.Ini files are, for lack of a better description, ancient.

There are old windows functions such as GetProfileString.
However you will have to make reference to load these from the windows
Kernel.dll.
Probably not worth the effort to code really old things as .ini files.
>From what I see of packages, better to change these files to XML format
see if the XML package on CRAN will solve your requirement.

The section names would be top nodes with
XML tags containing the data at the sub level. XML is really
The best way to go; get away from .ini files.

Look at the XML package, reading nodes, parsing DOM.

Neil 

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
[mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Earl F. Glynn
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 12:48 PM
To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: [R] Read Windows-like .INI files into R data structure?

I need to process some datasets where the configuration information was
stored in .INI-like files, i.e., text files with sections like this:

[Section1]
var1=value1
var2=value2
[Section2]
A=value3
B=value4

...
>From Google and other searches I haven't found any package, or function
within a package, that reads .INI files into an R list, or other data
structure.



Any suggestions, or do I need to write my own?

efg

Earl F. Glynn
Stowers Institute for Medical Research

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Here is some code. It replaces [ and ] with = sign and reads the result
into a data frame, DF.  DF2 is similar except the section is now in V3.
DF3 is like like DF2 except sections are carried forward and finally
we remove the rows which only had sections.

Lines.raw <- "[Section1]
var1=value1
var2=value2
[Section2]
A=value3
B=value4
"

Lines <- readLines(textConnection(Lines.raw))
Lines2 <- chartr("[]", "==", Lines)
DF <- read.table(textConnection(Lines2), as.is = TRUE, sep = "=",
fill = TRUE)
DF2 <- transform(DF, V3 = ifelse(V1 == "", V2, NA))
L <- !is.na(DF2$V3)
DF3 <- transform(DF2, V3 = V3[c(NA, which(L))[cumsum(L)+1]])
subset(DF3, V1 != "")

The result is:

    V1     V2       V3
2 var1 value1 Section1
3 var2 value2 Section1
5    A value3 Section2
6    B value4 Section2


On 6/12/07, Earl F. Glynn <efg at stowers-institute.org>
wrote:
> I need to process some datasets where the configuration information was
> stored in .INI-like files, i.e., text files with sections like this:
>
> [Section1]
> var1=value1
> var2=value2
> [Section2]
> A=value3
> B=value4
>
> ...
>
> >From Google and other searches I haven't found any package, or
function
> within a package, that reads .INI files into an R list, or other data
> structure.
>
>
>
> Any suggestions, or do I need to write my own?
>
> efg
>
> Earl F. Glynn
> Stowers Institute for Medical Research
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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.
>

One more question, inspired by this one, just to increase my R skill level.

Earl F. Glynn wrote:
> 
> I need to process some datasets where the configuration information was 
> stored in .INI-like files, i.e., text files with sections like this:
> 
> [Section1]
> var1=value1
> var2=value2
> [Section2]
> A=value3
> B=value4
> 
"var1=value1", "A=value3" is almost pure R code.
Is it possible to use this feature to solve the problem? 
That is, something like eval(as.expression("A=value3"))  and assign
(store)
the result in "lst$Section2" environment.

"lst" is a newly created list, containing the contents of the file
being
processed.
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