read.table bug (PR#1809)

Fri, 19 Jul 2002 05:12:01 +0200 (MET DST)

Full_Name: Michael McStephen
Version: 1.5.1
OS: Win2000
Submission from: (NULL) (203.25.148.63)

When using read.table to read a data file section by section, I get an error
that indicates R is attempting to read more "fields" than exist.

The Data file looks like this:

---Start of file tmp.txt-----------
Response Types = TPos TNeg FPos FNeg Anti Post MaxO 

Test ID,Username,Start Date,Mean,Std
Dev,Accuracy,SRT1_1,SRT1_1_TYPE,SRT1_2,SRT1_2_TYPE,SRT1_3,SRT1_3_TYPE,SRT1_4,SRT1_4_TYPE,SRT1_5,SRT1_5_TYPE,SRT1_6,SRT1_6_TYPE,SRT1_7,SRT1_7_TYPE,SRT1_8,SRT1_8_TYPE,SRT1_9,SRT1_9_TYPE,SRT1_10,SRT1_10_TYPE,SRT1_11,SRT1_11_TYPE,SRT1_12,SRT1_12_TYPE,SRT1_13,SRT1_13_TYPE,SRT1_14,SRT1_14_TYPE,SRT1_15,SRT1_15_TYPE,SRT1_16,SRT1_16_TYPE,SRT1_17,SRT1_17_TYPE,SRT1_18,SRT1_18_TYPE,SRT1_19,SRT1_19_TYPE,SRT1_20,SRT1_20_TYPE,SRT1_21,SRT1_21_TYPE,SRT1_22,SRT1_22_TYPE,SRT1_23,SRT1_23_TYPE,SRT1_24,SRT1_24_TYPE,SRT1_25,SRT1_25_TYPE,
12247,ess40,4/18/02,2.480833271780652,0.152415692862802,100.0,299,1,371,1,339,1,250,1,308,1,227,1,287,1,237,1,281,1,259,1,384,1,272,1,361,1,1307,1,259,1,236,1,280,1,248,1,241,1,231,1,270,1,450,1,261,1,293,1,298,1,

Test ID,Username,Start Date,Mean,Std
Dev,Accuracy,SRT2_1,SRT2_1_TYPE,SRT2_2,SRT2_2_TYPE,SRT2_3,SRT2_3_TYPE,SRT2_4,SRT2_4_TYPE,SRT2_5,SRT2_5_TYPE,SRT2_6,SRT2_6_TYPE,SRT2_7,SRT2_7_TYPE,SRT2_8,SRT2_8_TYPE,SRT2_9,SRT2_9_TYPE,SRT2_10,SRT2_10_TYPE,SRT2_11,SRT2_11_TYPE,SRT2_12,SRT2_12_TYPE,SRT2_13,SRT2_13_TYPE,SRT2_14,SRT2_14_TYPE,SRT2_15,SRT2_15_TYPE,SRT2_16,SRT2_16_TYPE,SRT2_17,SRT2_17_TYPE,SRT2_18,SRT2_18_TYPE,SRT2_19,SRT2_19_TYPE,SRT2_20,SRT2_20_TYPE,SRT2_21,SRT2_21_TYPE,SRT2_22,SRT2_22_TYPE,SRT2_23,SRT2_23_TYPE,SRT2_24,SRT2_24_TYPE,SRT2_25,SRT2_25_TYPE,SRT2_26,SRT2_26_TYPE,SRT2_27,SRT2_27_TYPE,
12247,ess40,4/18/02,2.547430074367148,0.2068384905939905,92.0,470,1,253,1,368,1,325,1,249,1,272,1,275,1,275,1,355,1,485,1,306,1,1334,5,416,1,392,1,212,1,1531,5,621,1,331,1,314,1,277,1,336,1,393,1,232,1,243,1,252,1,245,1,271,1,

Test ID,Username,Start Date,Mean,Std
Dev,Accuracy,SRT3_1,SRT3_1_TYPE,SRT3_2,SRT3_2_TYPE,SRT3_3,SRT3_3_TYPE,SRT3_4,SRT3_4_TYPE,SRT3_5,SRT3_5_TYPE,SRT3_6,SRT3_6_TYPE,SRT3_7,SRT3_7_TYPE,SRT3_8,SRT3_8_TYPE,SRT3_9,SRT3_9_TYPE,SRT3_10,SRT3_10_TYPE,SRT3_11,SRT3_11_TYPE,SRT3_12,SRT3_12_TYPE,SRT3_13,SRT3_13_TYPE,SRT3_14,SRT3_14_TYPE,SRT3_15,SRT3_15_TYPE,SRT3_16,SRT3_16_TYPE,SRT3_17,SRT3_17_TYPE,SRT3_18,SRT3_18_TYPE,SRT3_19,SRT3_19_TYPE,SRT3_20,SRT3_20_TYPE,SRT3_21,SRT3_21_TYPE,SRT3_22,SRT3_22_TYPE,SRT3_23,SRT3_23_TYPE,SRT3_24,SRT3_24_TYPE,SRT3_25,SRT3_25_TYPE,SRT3_26,SRT3_26_TYPE,
12247,ess40,4/18/02,2.494412530422871,0.17876797593577065,96.0,355,1,291,1,331,1,276,1,279,1,278,1,454,1,275,1,272,1,249,1,249,1,221,1,235,1,299,1,240,1,261,1,241,1,249,1,321,1,329,1,234,1,250,1,278,1,442,1,1583,5,662,1,

...

eof-----

I have an array of skip values, and the number of lines to read after the skip
values:

skip.lines<-4  #number of lines between task headers
skip.1<-2      #number of lines to the first task header
n.tasks<-10     #number of tasks in the file
n.lines<-1     #number of lines per task (excluding header)

tmp<-seq(1,n.tasks)
skip<- skip.1 + skip.lines * (tmp -1)

# and the read.table is in a loop:

for (i in 1:n.tasks) {
    i.dat<-read.table("tmp.txt",  sep=",", strip.white=TRUE, fill=TRUE,
skip=skip[i], nrows=n.lines, header=FALSE)
    i.name<-substr(names(i.dat)[7],1,4)

    more stuff here
}

When only the first block (first 5 rows) of the file are used, there is no
problem.  When the subsequent blocks are included, R appears to be looking for
more "fields" in the rows 3 and 4 than actually exist.  Changing to header=FALSE
allows me to see all the data, but then I have to transform from character to
numeric and I don't get the names in the data frame.

This script works if the data file has more than one row of data below the
header. (Just cut and paste a data row)

Regards,

michael.

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