R help - Aug 2012 - removing lines from text file

I downloaded a text file which has several lines of text before the 
header line of the data, similar to this:

---start---
"Corn December 2012 (CZ2012)"
Source:  Wikiposit Open Data via wikiposit.org 
(http://wikiposit.org/uid?FUTURE.CZ2012)
Update: 
http://wikiposit.org/w?action=dl&dltypes=comma%20separated&sp=daily&uid=FUTURE.CZ2012

Date,Open,High,Low,Settle,Volume,OpenInt,
08-Jun-2009,0,469.5,469.5,469.5,0,0,
09-Jun-2009,0,476.75,469.5,476.75,0,0,
...

After I download the file using R, how do I remove the lines of text
that appear before the header line (Date, Open, ...)?

On 23-08-2012, at 07:22, Doug Edmunds wrote:
> I downloaded a text file which has several lines of text before the header
line of the data, similar to this:
> 
> ---start---
> "Corn December 2012 (CZ2012)"
> Source:  Wikiposit Open Data via wikiposit.org
(http://wikiposit.org/uid?FUTURE.CZ2012)
> Update:
http://wikiposit.org/w?action=dl&dltypes=comma%20separated&sp=daily&uid=FUTURE.CZ2012
> 
> Date,Open,High,Low,Settle,Volume,OpenInt,
> 08-Jun-2009,0,469.5,469.5,469.5,0,0,
> 09-Jun-2009,0,476.75,469.5,476.75,0,0,
> ...
> 
> After I download the file using R, how do I remove the lines of text
> that appear before the header line (Date, Open, ...)?
> 
?read.table

Use the argument skip of the read.XXX functions (XXX=table, csv,csv2 etc.)

Berend

HI,
Try this:
dat1<-read.table(text="Corn December 2012 (CZ2012)
Source:? Wikiposit Open Data via wikiposit.org
(http://wikiposit.org/uid?FUTURE.CZ2012)
Update:
http://wikiposit.org/w?action=dl&dltypes=comma%20separated&sp=daily&uid=FUTURE.CZ2012

Date,Open,High,Low,Settle,Volume,OpenInt,
08-Jun-2009,0,469.5,469.5,469.5,0,0,
09-Jun-2009,0,476.75,469.5,476.75,0,0",sep=",",skip=6,fill=TRUE,header=TRUE)

dat1
#???????? Date Open?? High?? Low Settle Volume OpenInt? X
#1 08-Jun-2009??? 0 469.50 469.5 469.50????? 0?????? 0 NA
#2 09-Jun-2009??? 0 476.75 469.5 476.75????? 0?????? 0 NA
A.K.



----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Edmunds <dougedmunds at gmail.com>
To: r-help at r-project.org
Cc: 
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 1:22 AM
Subject: [R] removing lines from text file

I downloaded a text file which has several lines of text before the header line
of the data, similar to this:

---start---
"Corn December 2012 (CZ2012)"
Source:? Wikiposit Open Data via wikiposit.org
(http://wikiposit.org/uid?FUTURE.CZ2012)
Update:
http://wikiposit.org/w?action=dl&dltypes=comma%20separated&sp=daily&uid=FUTURE.CZ2012

Date,Open,High,Low,Settle,Volume,OpenInt,
08-Jun-2009,0,469.5,469.5,469.5,0,0,
09-Jun-2009,0,476.75,469.5,476.75,0,0,
...

After I download the file using R, how do I remove the lines of text
that appear before the header line (Date, Open, ...)?

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