[R] Reading .csv file under linux

[David Scott]

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

> On Wed, 23 Jan 2008, David Scott wrote:
>
>> 
>> I have encountered a problem with reading a .csv file on a linux box. I
>> can read the file on my windows machine (under XP) but on the linux box it
>> gives :
>> 
>>> patients <- read.csv("../Patients.csv", header = FALSE,
>> +                      col.names = patientsNames)
>> Error in type.convert(data[[i]], as.is = as.is[i], dec = dec,
>> na.strings = character(0)) :
>>   invalid multibyte string
>> Calls: read.csv -> read.table -> type.convert
>> Execution halted
>> 
>> I am running R 2.6.1 on both machines. I tried on another linux box
>> running 2.5.1 and got the same problem
>> 
>> I am guessing it is something to do with the character encoding. On the
>> linux box I have
>> 
>> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
>
> So what encoding is the .csv file in?  Consider the example at the end of 
> ?file
>
>     ## examples of use of encodings
>     cat(x, file = file("foo", "w", encoding="UTF-8"))
>     # read a 'Windows Unicode' file including names
>     A <- read.table(file("students", encoding="UCS-2LE"))
>
> and adapt accordingly (encoding = "CP1252" is the most likely value if this 
> works in English-language Windows).
>


Thanks Brian for the super-quick, super-helpful reply. The encoding you 
suggested worked.

I found a workaround myself too---I guessed that some plus/minus signs 
might be the problem and replaced them and could read in the file.
That is just a kludge so I am using the encoding specification.

I am a total dunce when it comes to encodings though. How do you find the 
encoding of a file?

David

_________________________________________________________________
David Scott	Department of Statistics, Tamaki Campus
 		The University of Auckland, PB 92019
 		Auckland 1142,    NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 86830		Fax: +64 9 373 7000
Email:	d.scott at auckland.ac.nz

Graduate Officer, Department of Statistics
Director of Consulting, Department of Statistics