[R] Working around 256 byte variable names? + trouble opening large file

[A Singh]

Dear R users,

I am trying to read in a file with 105 columns, and when trying to attach 
it, get an error as follows:

> vc1<-read.table("P:\\R\\Everything-I.txt", header=T, sep=" ", dec=".", 
na.strings=NA, strip.white=T)
> attach(vc1)
Error in attach(vc1) : variable names are limited to 256 bytes

Is there a way to get around this, and make R accept the given variable 
names? Or will I have to shorten them?


Also, when I try to read in a much larger file with 430 columns, I get the 
error:

Error in scan(file, what, nmax, sep, dec, quote, skip, nlines, na.strings, 
:
  line 397 did not have 431 elements

Is it that R isn't dealing too well with Excel-converted-to-text files? Is 
it a function of file size?

I have double-checked the 430 column file and all data seems to be in place.


Thanks for your help!

Aditi




----------------------
A Singh
Aditi.Singh at bristol.ac.uk
School of Biological Sciences
University of Bristol