[R] Problem with read.table()

[dmcwilli]

I am trying to read machine output data with a 21 row header and 2 row footer.
 Numbers of rows and columns are variable.  Just skipping the header causes 
read.table to choke on the last 2 rows since the number of fields is not the 
same as the data table.  The header contains information for calculating the 
number of rows.  I can successfully pick this out and do the calculation, but 
cannot get the second read.table() to see the assign the number to "nrows" 
(the number is correct; if I enter it manually, the everything works fine).  
Currently the function reads all the way to the end and crashes on the footer.

Code follows.

# function to read data with header and footer
grid.layout <- read.table(fname, as.is=T, header=F, sep="\t", comment.char="", 
skip=7, nrows=1)
row.ctr <- grid.layout[4]*grid.layout[5]*grid.layout[6]*grid.layout[7]

# tells me I have the right dimensions ...
print(row.ctr)

tmp.df <- read.table(fname, as.is=T, header=T, sep="\t", comment.char="", 
skip=20, nrows=row.ctr )

tmp.df
# end function


Regards,

David McWilliams

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