[R] Reading data

[David Winsemius]

On Oct 28, 2009, at 10:55 AM, Val wrote:

> The working directory is
>
>> getwd()
> [1] "C:/Documents and Settings/Val/My Documents"
>
> The data file(Rossi.dat) and the script(Rossi.R) are in
> "C:/Documents and Settings/Val/My Documents/R_data/prd"

So you are not giving a proper path when you issue the read.table  
command. The default path when not explicitly provided is to the  
working directory, and you have stored your data elsewhere.

>
> How should I write to read the file?
>
>    source(???)   # what should be included here?
>
>

The guess I was about to make when I realized you were conflating data  
and scripts was that you might want:

Rossi <- read.table(paste(getwd(), 'Rossi.dat', sep="/"), header=T) #  
but that would not have been effectively different from the default  
behavior.

So you instead want:

Rossi <- read.table(paste("C:/Documents and Settings/Val/My Documents/ 
R_data/prd", "Rossi.dat", sep="/"), header=T)

Only if you wanted to read in a script with valid r-code would you use  
source().


>>
>
> I still  got the same error message.
>
> Error in file(file, "r") : cannot open the connection
> In addition: Warning message:
> In file(file, "r") : cannot open file 'Rossi': No such file or  
> directory
>
>
-- 
David

> On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 10:32 AM, David Winsemius <dwinsemius at comcast.net 
> >wrote:
>
>>
>> On Oct 28, 2009, at 10:04 AM, Val wrote:
>>
>> Hi User's,
>>>
>>> This might be a simple question but it is giving me a hard time as  
>>> I am a
>>> new user.
>>> I installed  R version 2.9.2 (2009-08-24)
>>>
>>> 1. I just copied a short script from Fox (2002) as a practice    
>>> and wanted
>>> to save it as Rossi.R.
>>>
>>
>> How?
>>
>>
>> The system saved it without complain but when I looked at  using a  
>> windows
>>> explorer  it is not *.R file but only Rossi. Why this is happening?
>>>
>>
>> If you were to include the code, we perhaps could tell you. In its  
>> default
>> mode Windows may be hiding the extension from you. (Or possibly  
>> because R
>> does not postpend file types and (I am now guessing here about a  
>> package I
>> have not used and don't even know if you are) neither does Rcmdr.)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> 2. the script and the data files are in the same working  
>>> directory. When I
>>> run the following script
>>>
>>> Rossi <- read.table('Rossi',header=T)
>>>>
>>>
>> No path specification. And ??? thought you said it was a script,  
>> which
>> would have been loaded with source()
>>
>>
>>  Rossi[1:5,1:10]
>>>>
>>>
>> But this suggests you are using it as data. ????
>>
>> What do you get when your type this:
>>
>> getwd()
>>
>> the working directory is > getwd()
> [1] "C:/Documents and Settings/val/My Documents"
>> getwd()
>
>
>
>
>
>> Maybe if you tried (untested)... Nah ... not going to do further  
>> guessing.
>> Read the posting guide and supply the missing elements.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> I got the following error messages
>>>
>>>          Error in file(file, "r") : cannot open the connection
>>>          In addition: Warning message:
>>>          In file(file, "r") : cannot open file 'Rossi': No such  
>>> file or
>>> directory
>>>
>>>> Rossi[1:5,1:10]
>>>>
>>>         Error: object 'Rossi' not found
>>>
>>>
>>> Thank you for your help in advance
>>>
>>> Val
>>>
>> --
>>
>> David Winsemius, MD
>> Heritage Laboratories
>> West Hartford, CT
>>
>>
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
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David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT