[Rd] read.table reads "i" as NA_complex_

[peter dalgaard]

This is fixed/changed in r-devel:

> str(type.convert("i"))
 Factor w/ 1 level "i": 1

It was reported on July 18 as PR#16473, if you care.

(Funny how an obscure issue goes unnoticed for a decade, then pops up twice independently within a few months. A property of the Poisson process, I suppose.)


> On 07 Oct 2015, at 22:22 , William Dunlap <wdunlap at tibco.com> wrote:
> 
> I just noticed that read.table() and type.convert() interpret the string "i"
> as a missing value of type complex.
>> str(read.table(text=c("i\ni\ni\ni\n")))
>   'data.frame':   4 obs. of  1 variable:
>    $ V1: cplx  NA NA NA ...
>> str(type.convert("i"))
>    cplx NA
> 
> If there are other strings in the column it makes the column character so
> most people will not notice
>> str(read.table(text=c("i\nii\niii\niv\n")))
>   'data.frame':   4 obs. of  1 variable:
>    $ V1: Factor w/ 4 levels "i","ii","iii",..: 1 2 3 4
> 
> Is this intended?  It surprised me.
> 
> Bill Dunlap
> TIBCO Software
> wdunlap tibco.com
> 
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> 
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-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
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Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com