[Rd] Col.names parameter in write.csv (PR#10411)

Peter Dalgaard P.Dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk
Fri Nov 9 11:23:35 CET 2007


kingsley.oteng-amoako at macquarie.com wrote:
> Full_Name: Kingsley Oteng-Amoako
> Version: 2.5.1
> OS: Windows 5.1.2600 (Windows XP)
> Submission from: (NULL) (203.185.215.144)
>
>
> The col.names=false in the write.csv command does not work as documented.
> Attempting to write a vector to a csv file without column headers does not work
> as documented. 
>
> The col.names=false feature on the write.table command does however work and it
> can thus be coerced into behaving like the write.csv command - which suggests
> that there is  a simple error with the write.csv command code.
>   
No, this is exacly as documented:


    'write.csv' and 'write.csv2' provide convenience wrappers for
     writing CSV files.  They set 'sep', 'dec' and 'qmethod', and
     'col.names' to 'NA' if 'row.names = TRUE' and 'TRUE' otherwise.
.....
     These wrappers are deliberately inflexible: they are designed to
     ensure that the correct conventions are used to write a valid
     file. Attempts to change 'col.names', 'sep', 'dec' or 'qmethod'
     are ignored, with a warning.

(I forget whether the warning bit is new in 2.6.x, though)

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Øster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark          Ph:  (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)                  FAX: (+45) 35327907



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