[R] Yet another question about importing Excel *.xls files

[David Winsemius]

On Jan 21, 2010, at 8:44 AM, Jerry Floren wrote:

>
> Hi Gabor,
>
> Perhaps I am missing something in my file names that I just can't see.
> Whenever I have had problems reading a file into R, it always has been
> because of some typo that I have made.
>
> ## This is what I am trying to run. The worksheet is the third one.
> Originally it was named "Paste Special", but I changed it to  
> "Sheet3". The
> first cell (A1) on Sheet3 is named "NAPT_ID"

Is it named NAPT_ID" or does it contain that string?

(If it's the A1 cell, why not omit the pattern argument altogether?)

-- 
David.

>
> library(gdata)
> DF <- read.xls("C:/TestR", pattern = "NAPT_ID", sheet=3, as.is = TRUE)
>
>
> This is the error message I get:
>
>> library(gdata)
>
> Attaching package: 'gdata'
>
>
>        The following object(s) are masked from package:utils :
>
>         object.size
>
>> DF <- read.xls("C:/TestR", pattern = "NAPT_ID", sheet=3, as.is =  
>> TRUE)
> Converting xls file to csv file... Error in system(cmd, intern = ! 
> verbose) :
> perl not found
> Error in file.exists(tfn) : invalid 'file' argument
>>
>
> ## Here is an example file name from "file.choose()" in this directory
>
>> file.choose()
> [1] "C:\\TestR\\MAP_2009Round2_2002Soiltest9-21-09.xls"
>> file.choose()
> [1] "C:\\TestR\\MAP_2009Round2_2006BestTest10-2-09.xls"
>> file.choose()
> [1] "C:\\TestR\\MAP_2009Round2_4006A&LWestern10-1-09.xls"
>>
> I ran it again after removing all the Excel files in this directory  
> except
> the three listed above and had similar error messages:
>
>> library(gdata)
>> DF <- read.xls("C:/TestR", pattern = "NAPT_ID", sheet=3, as.is =  
>> TRUE)
> Converting xls file to csv file... Error in system(cmd, intern = ! 
> verbose) :
> perl not found
> Error in file.exists(tfn) : invalid 'file' argument
>>
>
> Next, I renamed the Excel files to simpler names and also removed  
> all the
> worksheets except the one with the data I needed. I renamed that one  
> Sheet1
> instead of "Paste Special". With these changes, I simplified the  
> expression,
> but I am still getting the same error messages.
>
>> DF <- read.xls("C:/TestR", as.is = TRUE)
> Converting xls file to csv file... Error in system(cmd, intern = ! 
> verbose) :
> perl not found
> Error in file.exists(tfn) : invalid 'file' argument
>>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jerry Floren
> Minnesota Department of Agriculture
> -- 
> View this message in context: http://n4.nabble.com/Yet-another-question-about-importing-Excel-xls-files-tp1018699p1049735.html
> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT