R help - May 2011 - Rodbc quesion: how to reliably determine the data type?

Hello,

How can I tell RODBC to scan all the records of an xls file to determine the 
data type? If the first n records happen to be empty Rodbc assumes a character, 
and any numbers are made <NA>. And if, for instance, the first n records
contain
numbers, and later they also contain characters, those characters  become NA.

 Cheers!!
Albert-Jan


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order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the
Romans ever done for us?
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This is not a decision being made by RODBC... it is in the Microsoft ODBC driver
for Excel. If you really want to know more, you can read
http://www.dicks-blog.com/archives/2004/06/03/external-data-mixed-types/ ...

but the best solution is to take your data out of Excel and only use xls/xlsx
formats for data output (if at all).
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Albert-Jan Roskam <fomcl@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hello, How can I tell RODBC to scan all the records of an xls file to determine
the data type? If the first n records happen to be empty Rodbc assumes a
character, and any numbers are made <NA>. And if, for instance, the first
n records contain numbers, and later they also contain characters, those
characters become NA. Cheers!! Albert-Jan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All
right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public
order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the
Romans ever done for us?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
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