[R] Read Windows-like .INI files into R data structure?

[Gabor Grothendieck]

Here is some code. It replaces [ and ] with = sign and reads the result
into a data frame, DF.  DF2 is similar except the section is now in V3.
DF3 is like like DF2 except sections are carried forward and finally
we remove the rows which only had sections.

Lines.raw <- "[Section1]
var1=value1
var2=value2
[Section2]
A=value3
B=value4
"

Lines <- readLines(textConnection(Lines.raw))
Lines2 <- chartr("[]", "==", Lines)
DF <- read.table(textConnection(Lines2), as.is = TRUE, sep = "=", fill = TRUE)
DF2 <- transform(DF, V3 = ifelse(V1 == "", V2, NA))
L <- !is.na(DF2$V3)
DF3 <- transform(DF2, V3 = V3[c(NA, which(L))[cumsum(L)+1]])
subset(DF3, V1 != "")

The result is:

    V1     V2       V3
2 var1 value1 Section1
3 var2 value2 Section1
5    A value3 Section2
6    B value4 Section2


On 6/12/07, Earl F. Glynn <efg at stowers-institute.org> wrote:
> I need to process some datasets where the configuration information was
> stored in .INI-like files, i.e., text files with sections like this:
>
> [Section1]
> var1=value1
> var2=value2
> [Section2]
> A=value3
> B=value4
>
> ...
>
> >From Google and other searches I haven't found any package, or function
> within a package, that reads .INI files into an R list, or other data
> structure.
>
>
>
> Any suggestions, or do I need to write my own?
>
> efg
>
> Earl F. Glynn
> Stowers Institute for Medical Research
>
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