[R] read.fwf and header

[Daniel Nordlund]

Gregor,

According to the help for read.fwf, sep needs to be set to a value that occurs only in the header record.  I changed the spaces to commas in the header record of your example and used the following syntax and was able to read the file just fine.

new.data<-read.fwf(file="test.txt", widths=c(3, 4, 10, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 11, 19),
  header=TRUE, sep=',')

Hope this is helpful,

Dan

Daniel Nordlund
Bothell, WA  USA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch]
> On Behalf Of Gregor Gorjanc
> Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 10:52 AM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: [R] read.fwf and header
> 
> Hi!
> 
> I have data (also in attached file) in the following form:
> 
> num1 num2 num3 int1 fac1 fac2 cha1 cha2 Date POSIXt
>  1                1   f q   1900-01-01 1900-01-01 01:01:01
>  2 1.0 1316666.5  2 a g r z            1900-01-01 01:01:01
>  3 1.5 1188830.5  3 b h s y 1900-01-01 1900-01-01 01:01:01
>  4 2.0 1271846.3  4 c i t x 1900-01-01 1900-01-01 01:01:01
>  5 2.5  829737.4    d j u w 1900-01-01
>  6 3.0 1240967.3  5 e k v v 1900-01-01 1900-01-01 01:01:01
>  7 3.5  919684.4  6 f l w u 1900-01-01 1900-01-01 01:01:01
>  8 4.0  968214.6  7 g m x t 1900-01-01 1900-01-01 01:01:01
>  9 4.5 1232076.4  8 h n y s 1900-01-01 1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 10 5.0 1141273.4  9 i o z r 1900-01-01 1900-01-01 01:01:01
>    5.5  988481.4 10 j     q 1900-01-01 1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 
> This is a FWF (fixed width format) file. I can not use read.table here,
> because of missing values. I have tried with the following
> 
> > read.fwf(file="test.txt", widths=c(3, 4, 10, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 11, 20),
> header=TRUE)
> 
> Error in read.table(file = FILE, header = header, sep = sep, as.is =
> as.is,  :
> 	more columns than column names
> 
> I could use:
> 
> > read.fwf(file="test.txt", widths=c(3, 4, 10, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 11, 20),
> header=FALSE, skip=1)
>    V1  V2        V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8          V9                 V10
> 1   1  NA        NA  1    f  q     1900-01-01  1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 2   2 1.0 1316666.5  2 a  g  r  z              1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 3   3 1.5 1188830.5  3 b  h  s  y  1900-01-01  1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 4   4 2.0 1271846.3  4 c  i  t  x  1900-01-01  1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 5   5 2.5  829737.4 NA d  j  u  w  1900-01-01
> 6   6 3.0 1240967.3  5 e  k  v  v  1900-01-01  1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 7   7 3.5  919684.4  6 f  l  w  u  1900-01-01  1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 8   8 4.0  968214.6  7 g  m  x  t  1900-01-01  1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 9   9 4.5 1232076.4  8 h  n  y  s  1900-01-01  1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 10 10 5.0 1141273.4  9 i  o  z  r  1900-01-01  1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 11 NA 5.5  988481.4 10 j        q  1900-01-01  1900-01-01 01:01:01
> 
> Does anyone have a clue, how to get above result with header?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> --
> Lep pozdrav / With regards,
>     Gregor Gorjanc
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> University of Ljubljana     PhD student
> Biotechnical Faculty
> Zootechnical Department     URI: http://www.bfro.uni-lj.si/MR/ggorjan
> Groblje 3                   mail: gregor.gorjanc <at> bfro.uni-lj.si
> 
> SI-1230 Domzale             tel: +386 (0)1 72 17 861
> Slovenia, Europe            fax: +386 (0)1 72 17 888
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> "One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it,
>  you have no certainty until you try." Sophocles ~ 450 B.C.
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.