[R] How do I read multiple rows of different lengths?

[David Winsemius]

On Oct 27, 2010, at 1:53 PM, smcguffee wrote:

>
> Hi,
> I have a data file with hundreds of rows, with every first, second,  
> third,
> and fourth line representing a set of numbers for row names x, y,  
> fit, and
> residuals, respectively. However, any given group of these lines  
> might be
> from 10 to 20000 values long.
>
> When I try
> fits=read.delim2("test")

Try adding  ...
  , header=FALSE, quote="")
   .....to the read arguments. (You have no header and the leading and  
trailing double-quotes result in everything getting read in in one  
column.)

> Error in read.table(file = file, header = header, sep = sep, quote =  
> quote,
> :
>  more columns than column names
>
> When I try
> fits=readLines("test")
> it reads the data, but doesn't separate it into values:
>> head(fits)
> [1] "1\t30049\t30204\tsegment_4\t35\t."
> [2]
> "bp 
> \t30049 
> \t30065 
> \t30071 
> \t30114 
> \t30119 
> \t30121 
> \t30126 
> \t30130\t30132\t30134\t30137\t30146\t30151\t30165\t30174\t30204\t"
> [3] "origScore\t4\t1\t1\t2\t1\t1\t2\t2\t2\t6\t5\t2\t1\t2\t1\t2\t"
> [4]
> "fit 
> \t2.15669 
> \t2.20976 
> \t2.22514 
> \t2.25842 
> \t2.25336 
> \t2.25082 
> \t2.24318 
> \t2.23576 
> \t2.23161 
> \t2.22718\t2.21999\t2.19465\t2.17818\t2.12334\t2.08169\t1.91129\t"
> [5]
> "residuals 
> \t1.84331 
> \t 
> -1.20976 
> \t 
> -1.22514 
> \t 
> -0.258424 
> \t 
> -1.25336 
> \t 
> -1.25082 
> \t 
> -0.243182 
> \t 
> -0.235756 
> \t 
> -0.23161 
> \t3.77282 
> \t2.78001\t-0.194654\t-1.17818\t-0.123344\t-1.08169\t0.0887071\t"
>
> Can anyone help me do this?
> Thanks,
> Sean
>
>
> -- 
> View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/How-do-I-read-multiple-rows-of-different-lengths-tp3015986p3015986.html
> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT