R help - Jul 2009 - rows missing after dataset loaded to R

Dear all,

When I loaded a dataset (a txt file), which is structured in a tabular
format, to R by using read.delim, I found some rows were missing. The column
number was correct. These missing rows are no apparently different from the
other rows, and for some unknown reasons these missing rows scattered among
the last 50 rows of the dataset. Then after I tried to open this txt file in
Excel and simply saved it as txt file to overwrite the original txt file
without making any further changes, no rows disappeared when I loaded the
new txt file into R again.

I hope someone could give me ideas what could have gone wrong with my
dataset file. Thanks in advance.
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try using the options:

quote='', comment.char=''

You might have a comment character ("#") or unbalanced quote marks.
Look closely at the rows that your missing, especially several rows
prior to them.

On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 9:35 AM, Rnewbie<xuancj at yahoo.com>
wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> When I loaded a dataset (a txt file), which is structured in a tabular
> format, to R by using read.delim, I found some rows were missing. The
column
> number was correct. These missing rows are no apparently different from the
> other rows, and for some unknown reasons these missing rows scattered among
> the last 50 rows of the dataset. Then after I tried to open this txt file
in
> Excel and simply saved it as txt file to overwrite the original txt file
> without making any further changes, no rows disappeared when I loaded the
> new txt file into R again.
>
> I hope someone could give me ideas what could have gone wrong with my
> dataset file. Thanks in advance.
> --
> View this message in context:
http://www.nabble.com/rows-missing-after-dataset-loaded-to-R-tp24625882p24625882.html
> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org 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.
>


-- 
Jim Holtman
Cincinnati, OH
+1 513 646 9390

What is the problem that you are trying to solve?

Thank you very much for the reply. I checked the rows and it was the
unbalanced " quote marks in some of the rows that caused the problem. Once
I
disabled quoting altogether, the problem is solved.

I have one more basic question.  I disabled quoting when loading the file to
R, and all the columns consisting of characters with or without quotation
marks displayed normally. What does quoting actually do in R?

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