[R] Data import, going from 8 to 550 columns

[Prof Brian Ripley]

You cannot use read.table() to read multi-line records as here.
Why?  It is not a table?

You can use scan() to do this.

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004, CG Pettersson wrote:

> Hello all!
> 
> I need to import a NIR dataset into R. It should be quite trivial, but
> I 
> can´t make it work. (No problems with the text in the beginning, as #
> is 
> recognised by read.table as the comment sign.)
> 
> The thing I can´t get around is the <CR> that ends every line after
> column eight as the line in R should be 550 columns wide (including
> the JF-number). 
> Every new line in R should begin with the "JF2455" and so on.
> Naturally it is possible to re-shape the tables in Excel before
> import, but it is quite tedious and doesn´t feel right...!
> 
> How do I make read.table to just go on reading on the next line when
> it comes to <CR>, and how do I make it use the double <CR> followed by
> a blank to begin the next line?
> 
> The data-file(s) looks like this:
> 
> 
> #ID=Samples from soil scanning
> #SAMPLE_NUMBERS_PRESENT=Y
> #NX_VARIABLES=550
> #NY_VARIABLES=0
> #FIRST_WAVELENGTH=1300.000000
> #LAST_WAVELENGTH=2398.000000
> #WAVELENGTH_INCREMENT=2.000000
> JF2455  0.4367495 0.4365539 0.4363573 0.4361560 0.4359702 0.4357788 
> 0.4355963 0.4354126 0.4352311 0.4350726 0.4349101 0.4347557 0.4346097
> 0.4344587 
> 0.4343193 0.4341759 0.4340320 0.4338984 0.4337671 0.4336369 0.4335097
> 0.4333864 
>   the original table is 8 columns wide, ended with a <CR>
>   sixty four lines removed here....
> 
> 0.5015950 0.5020472 0.5026294 0.5033303 0.5041344 0.5049909 0.5059010
> 0.5067372 
> 0.5075415 0.5082389 0.5089509 0.5095288 0.5101137 0.5106306 0.5111954
> 0.5116805 
>  
>  JF2456  0.3604568 0.3600681 0.3596676 0.3592694 0.3588919 0.3585098 
> 0.3581379 0.3577725 0.3573992 0.3570563 0.3566975 0.3563588 0.3560365
> 0.3556931 
> 0.3553730 0.3550543 0.3547286 0.3544230 0.3541073 0.3537982 0.3535004
> 0.3531921 
> 0.3529077 0.3526271 0.3523493 0.3520919 0.3518271 0.3515673 0.3513192
> 0.3510693 
> 0.3508208 0.3505693 .......
> 
> and so on
> 
> Thanks!
> /CG
> 
> 
> CG Pettersson, MSci, PhD Stud.
> Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
> Dep. of Ecology and Crop Production. Box 7043
> SE-750 07 Uppsala
> 
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> 

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595