[Rd] read.table: wrong error message? (PR#10592)

[david.reitter at gmail.com]

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I believe read.table may report misleading errors. In this example,  
where a header line in a file has an incorrect number of row names (28  
instead of 29), I get the error message "duplicate row.names are not  
allowed".

However, I cannot not find any duplicate row names. Fixing the header  
line by adding an extra row name, however, avoids the error.

The behavior is confusing - I would expect a different error message,  
even if I should have quoted some row names.

I am attaching a sample file that reproduces the problem with R -- 
vanilla, and then: read.table("m2").  I get it in 2.5.1 and 2.6.0.

PS.:

R version 2.6.0 (2007-10-03)
...
 > x <- read.table("m2", header=T)
Error in read.table("m2", header = T) :
   duplicate 'row.names' are not allowed
 > traceback()
2: stop("duplicate 'row.names' are not allowed")
1: read.table("m2", header = T)
 >

  
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	filename=m2
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primed rule role dist starttime target.utt rule.freq primeperiod.length dialogue.length dialogue.id words.repeated words.repeated.prop head.repeated head.freq head.pos prime.gaze target.gaze eyecontact familiar convseq length doc.score friend task.familiar same.specrule derivation pathlen distituent
0 vp---vbg-vp i 2 5.67 4 False 172 70 261.5322 1 0 0/7 True na None None None 1 0 1 7 135 - - 1 None - -
0 vp---to-vp r 1 6.03 4 False 758 13 261.5322 1 0 0/6 True na None None None 1 0 1 6 135 - - 1 None - -
0 vp---to-vp i 2 6.03 4 False 758 70 261.5322 1 0 0/6 True na None None None 1 0 1 6 135 - - 1 None - -
0 s---cc-s i 1 11.3 5 False 813 83 261.5322 1 0 2/9 True na None None None 1 0 1 9 135 - - 1 None - -
0 s---cc-s i 3 11.3 5 False 813 70 261.5322 1 0 0/9 True na None None None 1 0 1 9 135 - - 1 None - -
0 s---advp-s i 3 12.71 5 False 440 70 261.5322 1 0 0/8 True na None None None 1 0 1 8 135 - - 1 None - -
1 vp---ber-vp i 1 12.98 5 False 406 83 261.5322 1 0 2/7 True na None None None 1 0 1 7 135 - - 1 None - -
1 vp---vbg-vp i 1 13.11 5 False 172 83 261.5322 1 0 3/7 True na None None None 1 0 1 7 135 - - 1 None - -
1 vp---to-vp i 1 13.52 5 False 758 83 261.5322 1 0 2/6 True na None None None 1 0 1 6 135 - - 1 None - -
1 pp---ql-rp-pp i 1 14.12 5 False 282 83 261.5322 1 0 0/3 True na None None None 1 0 1 3 135 - - 1 None - -
0 pp---ql-rp-pp r 2 14.12 5 False 282 13 261.5322 1 0 0/3 True na None None None 1 0 1 3 135 - - 1 None - -
0 ap---ap r 2 18.75 5 False 120 13 261.5322 1 0 0/1 True na None None None 1 0 1 1 135 - - 1 None - -
0 pp---pp-pp i 3 22.7 6 False 429 13 261.5322 1 0 0/4 True na None None None 1 0 1 4 135 - - 1 None - -
1 pp---ql-rp r 2 22.7 6 False 505 83 261.5322 1 0 1/2 True na None None None 1 0 1 2 135 - - 1 None - -
0 pp---rp-pp r 2 23.54 6 False 1124 83 261.5322 1 0 0/2 True na None None None 1 0 1 2 135 - - 1 None - -
0 pp---pp-cc-rb-pp i 2 25.27 7 False 64 200 261.5322 1 0 1/6 True na None None None 1 0 1 6 135 - - 1 None - -
0 pp---pp-cc-rb-pp r 4 25.27 7 False 64 13 261.5322 1 0 0/6 True na None None None 1 0 1 6 135 - - 1 None - -
1 pp---ql-rp-pp i 2 25.99 7 False 282 200 261.5322 1 0 2/3 True na None None None 1 0 1 3 135 - - 1 None - -
1 pp---ql-rp-pp i 3 25.99 7 False 282 83 261.5322 1 0 0/3 True na None None None 1 0 1 3 135 - - 1 None - -

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