[R] import csv file into R, strange problem

[bby2103 at columbia.edu]

Thanks for all the input. You were right. It was not csv file in the  
correct format. As it turned out, it's not a R problem, more a MAC  
problem. For some reason, my MAC doesn't correctly download csv file  
from internet, which caused all the subsequent problems. I will have  
to take it to a mac shop.

Quoting Rainer M Krug <r.m.krug at gmail.com>:

> On Wed 14 Sep 2011 10:37:46 CEST, Uwe Ligges wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 14.09.2011 10:28, Rainer M Krug wrote:
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>>> On 13/09/11 18:08, bonnieyuan wrote:
>>>> Hi, I used read.csv(file name, header=T, sep=",") to bring in a csv
>>>> file I saved in MS Excel. The strange thing is all the data ended
>>>> up in one big column. The number of rows match with the number of
>>>> observations, but all the variables got squeezed into one column.
>>>> Also the first row where the header is, the variables names have a
>>>> dot between them, replacing the comma that's in the original csv
>>>> file.
>>>>
>>>> What did I do wrong here?
>>>
>>> Maybe Microsoft? We had the problem in South Adfrica, that if the
>>> locale was set to South African English, then the csv was ";"
>>> seperated - don't tell me why.
>>
>> Probably MS expects that South Africans, like Germans, use a comma ","
>> as the decimal "point", and hence the separator is ";". That's why
>> read.csv2() is available - reading that pseudo comma separated format..
>
> Good to know - I should have known that at that time - it caused me
> several headaches.
>
> Rainer
>>
>> Uwe Ligges
>>
>>
>>>
>>> So: check your csv if it is really a csv.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Rainer
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- View this message in context:
>>>> http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/import-csv-file-into-R-strange-problem-tp3810470p3810470.html
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org
>>>> mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do
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>>>
>>>
>>> - --
>>> Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation
>>> Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)
>>>
>>> Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
>>> Stellenbosch University
>>> South Africa
>>>
>>> Tel :       +33 - (0)9 53 10 27 44
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>>>
>>> email:      Rainer at krugs.de
>>>
>>> Skype:      RMkrug
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>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
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>
>
>
>