[R] HELP me please with import of csv to R

[peter dalgaard]

On Jul 11, 2012, at 01:24 , Sarah Goslee wrote:

> That is silly, but I have learned something. Thanks.
> 
(The silliest bit was when someone decided that numeric data files should use locale-dependent conventions, notably decimal separators...)

> Though honestly, I've never seen the advantage of read.csv() over the more versatile read.table().

It's mainly that other software likes to write such files, so it is convenient with a simple function to read them. Same thing with read.delim(). There's also a point in trying to get all settings right, especially quotes and comments can throw users off.

> 
> Sarah
> 
> On Tuesday, July 10, 2012, peter dalgaard wrote:
> 
> On Jul 10, 2012, at 21:44 , Sarah Goslee wrote:
> >
> > But note that if sep=";" then you don't have a csv file and should
> > properly use read.table() instead.
> 
> That's not actually true. In a substantial part of the world, csv files are semicolon separated. That's what read.csv2() is for. (Yes, it is silly, please don't get me started...)
> 
> --
> Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
> Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
> Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
> Phone: (+45)38153501
> Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com
> 
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> -- 
> Sarah Goslee
> http://www.stringpage.com
> http://www.sarahgoslee.com
> http://www.functionaldiversity.org

-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com