[R] how to important a date file into R

[Gabor Grothendieck]

Try this.  From your printout it seems that there are some
extraneous spaces in the file so first we read it in and remove
the spaces and just in case remove any completely blank lines.
Then we re-read it using read.fwf.  Note that the widths= argument
in read.fwf can be a list where we specify the widths of successive
5 lines as 5 vectors:

Lines <- readLines("mydata.dat")
Lines <- gsub(" ", "", Lines)
Lines <- subset(Lines, Lines != "")

ones <- function(n) rep(1, n)
mydata <- read.fwf(textConnection(Lines),
   list(c(3, ones(8)), ones(80), ones(80), ones(80), ones(50)))


On Sun, Jun 8, 2008 at 12:09 AM, yyan liu <zhliur at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi:
>   I have a data file in the following format.  The first three digits stand for the ID of a respondent such as 402, 403. Different respondents may have the same ID. Followed the ID are 298 single digit number ranging from 1 to 5. My question is how to read this data file into R. I tried "scan" and "read" but they do not work because the numbers in the file are not separated.  Any suggestions?
> Thank you!
>
> zhong
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 40212221211
> 11212323114345531221314222132311445542524542111412113212124145315324113113112411
> 14153111131421112514214413141115311543241411222213124115411415351211114251213111
> 51512242411411311413352111512221311113211423111131141413151433212221211454124214
> 11531111311211331512415451222211112311131311111512
>  40222221211
> 31122312123333532122221122221311444321432343211313223213222134323223114122313322
> 13343113112421222413324223221213431321322212332223222115222414431222214351312113
> 52221232312323213313222111222242312112411323122131143223251332112123231333121222
> 11422211214312332312324351213121121311233412212512
>  40312191211
> 21112311121534431151234222211213324522211214112212112312311125413412313112211111
> 24233113124442121211213442233211221321444411253212211113221344241211424252112314
> 11121224211414112421111111111141332231511345133211131132431122111311121443131114
> 32541311112223211512414541111111121451211311111541
>  40322191211
> 31124311121411333143142111311111444331311315212111221131221115333113115111411312
> 15414112115544144211325324213211121151345211152412111114121535153531514152111425
> 32141123112335112111121111111151241243511135125221111111441121111322141111131114
> 35411111444313111112413531111111111341311411111511
>
>
>
>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
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