[R] readMat - how to retrieve the variables

[Joshua Wiley]

On Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 2:56 PM, Eduardo M. A. M.Mendes
<emammendes at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Joshua
>
> Many thanks for the prompt reply.
>
> I have saved a short version of the matlab file and the output on R is
>
>> b=readMat("testr.mat")
>> b
> $a
> , , 1
>
>       [,1]
> river1 List,2
> river2 List,2

It looks like you are dealing with a special series of lists nested
within three dimensional arrays within lists.  My suggestion would be
to double check that the matlab file has reasonable data (whatever
that means) and try to double check your use of readmat (do you meet
all the requirements for versions, etc.).  That is not a common R
structure so the extraction is similarly uncommon.  Perhaps Henrik
will be along with more helpful answers.

Good luck,

Josh
>
>
> attr(,"header")
> attr(,"header")$description
> [1] "MATLAB 5.0 MAT-file, Platform: PCWIN, Created on: Sun Mar 13 18:51:54 2011                                                  "
>
> attr(,"header")$version
> [1] "5"
>
> attr(,"header")$endian
> [1] "little"
>
> When I issue the command b$a[,,1]$river1[,,1]$flow  I see the flow values.
>
> Unfortunately the data is confidential.
>
> Many thanks
>
> Ed
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua Wiley [mailto:jwiley.psych at gmail.com]
> Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 6:30 PM
> To: Eduardo M. A. M.Mendes
> Cc: R-help at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R] readMat - how to retrieve the variables
>
> Hi Ed,
>
> Can you please provide *at least* the R output from running:
>
> str(data)
>
> where "data" is the variable name you stored the results of readMat() in.  If it is reasonably small and can be sent as plaintext (I do not know Matlabs file format off hand), you could send us the actual data so we can try to read it in, but at the least str() will let us see how R is storing your data and give you some explanation.
>
> Side note, as data() is a function, it might be worthwhile to call your actual data something else (say, mydata, dat, etc.).  For anyone else interested, readMat() is in package "R.matlab".
>
> Cheers,
>
> Josh
>
> On Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 2:07 PM, Eduardo M. A. M.Mendes <emammendes at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello
>>
>> I have a matlab MAT file that contains one single variable: a.  The
>> structure of a is as follows:
>>
>> a.river1.flow (flow values)
>> a.river1.date_flow (date)
>> a.river1.precip (precipitation values) a.river1.date_precip
>> a.river2.flow a.river2.date_flow a.river2.precip a.river2.date_precip
>>
>> I have used readMat to load the variable a in R, however I have no
>> idea how readMat translates a.  I managed to get some values out of
>> data=readMat("matfile.mat")
>>
>> data$a[,,1]$river1[,,1]$flow  -> Why do I need [,,1]?  Why not
>> data$a$river1$flow?
>>
>> Many thanks
>>
>> Ed
>>
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-- 
Joshua Wiley
Ph.D. Student, Health Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles
http://www.joshuawiley.com/