[R] using read.table, removing extra quotation mark from a text field? (e.g. ""cat" )

[Wil M Contreras Arbaje]

While you are looking for a solution within R, it might be simpler to  
open your text file in almost any free text editor (Notepad++,  
Textwrangler, Smultron, vim come to mind), and do Replace all "' for ".

On Sep 12, 2010, at 3:58 PM, jim holtman wrote:

> You can use the 'gsub' command to remove the quote marks.  You could
> readLines/writeLines the file to clean it up with gsub before using
> read.table on it so it can all be done within R.
>
> On Sun, Sep 12, 2010 at 1:58 PM, Eva Nordstrom <eva.nordstrom at yahoo.com 
> > wrote:
>> I am using read.table to import a text file within R.
>>
>> There are several "errors" in my text file.  An "extra" quotation  
>> mark has
>> inadvertently been included within a few text fields.
>>
>>
>> e.g. for a pipe (|) delimited text file, I have something similar  
>> to this:
>>
>> 1|7|30| "dog"
>> 2|6|25| ""cat"
>> 3|4|20|""
>> 4|5| 56| "mouse"
>> 5|3|56| ""horse"
>> 6|56| ""
>>
>> In the above example| there are extra quotation marks within the  
>> fields for cat
>> and horse. (row 2 and row 5)
>>
>> e.g. "cat , "horse
>>
>> One solution is to simply edit the text file and remove the extra  
>> quotation
>> mark.
>>
>> Is there a "good solution" I can implement form within R?
>>
>> I am OK with just importing the extra quotation marks and having  
>> nit show up as
>> part of the text field within R.
>>
>> e.g,
>> "cat
>> "horse
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>>
>>
>>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> 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.
>>
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Jim Holtman
> Cincinnati, OH
> +1 513 646 9390
>
> What is the problem that you are trying to solve?
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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.