[R] reading csv files

[analyst41 at hotmail.com]

On Feb 5, 8:57 am, Barry Rowlingson <b.rowling... at lancaster.ac.uk>
wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 10:23 AM, analys... at hotmail.com
>
> <analys... at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > the csv files are downloaded from a database and it looks like some
> > character fields contain the CR-LF sequence within them.
>
> > This causes R to see a new record/row and the number of rows it sees
> > is different (usually higher) from the number of rows actually
> > extracted.
>
>  Hard to tell without an example, but I just tried this in a file:
>
> 1,2,"this
> is a test",99
> 2,3,"oneliner",45
>
> and:
>
> > read.table("test.csv",sep=",")
>
>   V1 V2              V3 V4
> 1  1  2 this\nis a test 99
> 2  2  3        oneliner 45
>
> seemed to work. But if your strings aren't "quoted" (hard to tell
> without an example) then you might have to find another way. Hard to
> tell without an example.
>
> Barry
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-h... at r-project.org mailing listhttps://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guidehttp://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.


Here is a Hex dump (please igmore the '>' at the start of each line) -
of the file that results from extracting two rows.


> EF BB BF 64 65 73 63 72-69 70 74 69 6F 6E 0D 0A   ...description..
> 22 3C 73 74 72 6F 6E 67-3E 55 6E 6B 6E 6F 77 6E   "<strong>Unknown
> 20 41 6E 79 74 69 6D 65-2C 20 41 6E 79 77 68 65    Anytime, Anywhe
> 72 65 20 4C 65 61 72 6E-69 6E 67 3C 62 72 20 2F   re Learning<br /
> 3E 0D 0A 3C 2F 73 74 72-6F 6E 67 3E 20 54 68 65   >..</strong> The
> 20 61 6E 73 77 65 72 20-69 73 20 55 6E 6B 6E 6F    answer is Unkno
> 77 6E 2E 20 3C 73 74 72-6F 6E 67 3E 20 79 6F 75   wn. <strong> you
> 20 63 61 6E 20 73 74 61-72 74 20 61 6E 64 20 66    can start and f
> 69 6E 69 73 68 20 69 6E-20 6C 65 73 73 20 74 68   inish in less th
> 65 6E 20 31 37 20 6D 6F-6E 74 68 73 2E 3C 2F 73   en 17 months.</s
> 74 72 6F 6E 67 3E 20 3C-62 72 20 2F 3E 0D 0A 3C   trong> <br />..<
> 62 72 20 2F 3E 0D 0A 55-6E 6B 6E 6F 77 6E 20 61   br />..Unknown a
> 62 6F 75 74 20 65 6E 73-75 72 69 6E 67 20 79 6F   bout ensuring yo
> 75 20 6C 65 61 72 6E 20-2E 22 0D 0A 03 D8 26 8A   u learn ."....&.



R, Fortran and Excel see five lines, but the database has only two
lines.