[R] Reading files with varying number of columns

[Tim Clark]

Thanks for the suggestion.  I had read "fill" but didn't pick up on the 
details.  It only uses the first five columns to determine column dimensions, so 
it ignored my last two columns.  Specifying "col.names" with fill=TRUE did the 
trick!

Aloha,

Tim


                 




----- Original Message ----
From: Uwe Ligges <ligges at statistik.tu-dortmund.de>
To: Tim Clark <mudiver1200 at yahoo.com>
Cc: r-help at r-project.org
Sent: Sun, July 18, 2010 6:03:47 AM
Subject: Re: [R] Reading files with varying number of columns

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
>
>
>
>
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