[BioC] modify colClasses in read.columns?

[Henrik Parn]

Dear all,

I have received some data sets with some variables that certainly looks 
like numeric: they are individual IDs that are composed of some numbers 
separated by ".", e.g. 6534231.18, 8783234.20. Not surprisingly they are 
treated as numeric by read.columns, and 8783234.20 ends up like 
8783234.2 when read to R. When I used read.table I specified in 
colClasses that these variables should be read as |characters. However, 
in read.columns| |required.col| and |text.to.search| is used to set up 
the |colClasses| argument of |read.table|.| Does anyone have a 
suggestion of how I can modify the read.columns function so I can 
specify the colClasses myself?

Thanks in advance!   |

-- 
Henrik Pärn
Centre for Conservation Biology
Department of Biology
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
NO-7491 Trondheim
Norway

Office: +47 73596285
Fax: +47 73596100
Mobile: +47 90989255

E-mail: henrik.parn at bio.ntnu.no