[R] Data management problem: convert text string to matrix of 0's and 1's

[Dale Steele]

I have a data management problem which exceeds my meager R programming 
skills and would greatly appreciate suggestions on how to proceed?  The 
data consists of a series of observation periods. Specific behaviors are 
recorded for each time period in the order each is observed.  Their are 
8 possible behaviors, coded as "i" "c" "s" "r" "v" "e" "p" "f".

The data looks like:
-->
icsrvepf
fpevrsci
ics
p

f
ic
<--

I would like to convert the about to a matrix of the form:

  i c s r v e p f
  1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
  1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
  1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
  0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
  1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

Thanks.

Dale

Dale Steele, MD
Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Brown Medical School