[R] Reading files with varying number of columns

[Uwe Ligges]

See argument "fill" in ?read.table

Uwe Ligges


On 18.07.2010 12:14, Tim Clark wrote:
> Dear R list,
> I am trying to read files with a varying number of columns and can't figure out
> how to get them in the proper format.  Some rows have five value and some have
> seven.  Is there a way to read them in so that two empty columns are added to
> every row that has only five values?  An example of the data follows.  Thanks!
> Tim
>
>> 46,B,00301,2004-02-03,11:59:16
>> 46,B,00301,2004-02-03,12:03:43
>> 46,B,00301,2004-02-03,12:39:17
>> 46,B,00301,2004-02-03,23:07:28
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,07:39:57,-1.5,meters
>> 44,A,00230,2004-02-04,07:44:59
>> 44,A,00230,2004-02-04,07:46:19
>> 44,A,00230,2004-02-04,07:48:24
>> 44,A,00230,2004-02-04,07:49:12
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,07:53:08,2.5,meters
>> 44,A,00230,2004-02-04,07:54:34
>> 44,A,00230,2004-02-04,07:55:08
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,07:56:18,2.9,meters
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,07:56:39,2.5,meters
>> 46,B,00301,2004-02-04,08:00:49
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,08:02:12,-1.1,meters
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,08:04:01,2.2,meters
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,08:04:26,3.3,meters
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,08:40:26,2.9,meters
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,08:41:04,-2.2,meters
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,08:42:44,2.2,meters
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,08:44:31,2.9,meters
>> 44,A,00231,2004-02-04,09:04:43
>> 44,A,00231,2004-02-04,09:10:30
>> 44,A,00231,2004-02-04,09:12:08
>> 44,A,00231,2004-02-04,09:13:32
>> 44,A,00231,2004-02-04,09:14:06
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,09:18:24,0.4,meters
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,09:20:13,2.5,meters
>> 44,A,00231,2004-02-04,09:21:04
>> 44,A,00231,2004-02-04,09:22:53
>> 44,A,00231,2004-02-04,09:25:32
>> 44,A,00231,2004-02-04,09:29:31
>> 44,A,00231,2004-02-04,09:30:05
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,09:53:25,2.5,meters
>> 43,C,00232,2004-02-04,09:53:53,1.5,meters
>> 46,B,00301,2004-02-04,22:16:24
>> 46,B,00301,2004-02-04,22:19:32
>> 46,B,00258,2004-02-04,23:44:01
>> 46,B,00258,2004-02-04,23:44:28
>
>
>   Tim Clark
>
> Marine Ecologist
> National Park of American Samoa
> Pago Pago, American Samoa  96799
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.