[R] Scanning data lines with blanks in character vars

[s-luppescu@uchicago.edu]

Hello, I'm trying to read data in from a file using scan(). The last field is a
character string that contains blanks. I had read it in in S-Plus using this
code:

ifile <- list(entry=0,measure=0,st=0,count=0,score=0,
           error=0,inmsq=0,instd=0,outms=0,outstd=0,displc=0,ptbis=0,a=0,
        r="",name="")
if.widths <- c(1, 5, 8, 3, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 2, 2, 85)
d1 <- scan(file=fd,ifile,flush=T,skip=0,widths=if.widths)

The name variable is a character string that contains blanks, is of varying
length (maximum length is 85), varying number of words and is not surrounded by
quotes. It always starts at position 84 on the line and goes to the end of the
line.

This used to work in S-Plus 3.4 in SunOS (but it seems not to anymore, since we
moved to version 5 -- but that's besides the point). Anyway, since there is no
widths= in scan() in R, how do I read in a string containing blanks?
______________________________________________________________________
Stuart Luppescu         -=-=-  University of Chicago
$(B:MJ8$HCRF`H~$NIc(B        -=-=-  s-luppescu at uchicago.edu
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