[R] csv file with two header rows

[William Dunlap]

> But it is not clear to
> me what is supposed to happen with the the double header, or what the file format in
> question is exactly.

I've seen double headers in which the first line gives the names of the variables
and the second their units.  E.g., 
  http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/5day2/SISW1_5day.cwind
contains wind data (from Smith Island, Washington) and it currently starts with
  #YY  MM DD hh mm WDIR WSPD GDR GST GTIME
  #yr  mo dy hr mn degT m/s degT m/s hhmm
  2013 04 27 14 00 190  4.1 200  5.7 1337
  2013 04 27 13 50 198  4.1 999 99.0 9999
  2013 04 27 13 40 196  4.1 999 99.0 9999
  2013 04 27 13 30 202  4.1 999 99.0 9999
  2013 04 27 13 20 199  3.6 999 99.0 9999
  2013 04 27 13 10 188  3.1 999 99.0 9999
  2013 04 27 13 00 182  3.1 210  4.1 1218
  2013 04 27 12 50 198  3.1 999 99.0 9999
And I've read them with the 2-calls-to-read.table trick you mentioned
  > hd <- read.csv(..., nrows=2)
  > df <- read.csv(..., skip=2, header=FALSE)
  > names(df) <- ... some operation on hd ...
(or 3 calls, when I wanted to paste the units onto the variable name.)

Bill Dunlap
Spotfire, TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf
> Of peter dalgaard
> Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2013 12:48 AM
> To: John Kane
> Cc: r-help at r-project.org; analyst41 at hotmail.com
> Subject: Re: [R] csv file with two header rows
> 
> 
> On Apr 26, 2013, at 14:48 , John Kane wrote:
> 
> > I don't think so. read.csv is a striped down version of read.table.  You should be able to
> do this with the skip option there.
> 
> You can also pass skip= to read.csv, it just passes it on to read.table. But it is not clear to
> me what is supposed to happen with the the double header, or what the file format in
> question is exactly.
> 
> It is, e.g., quite possible to do something like
> 
> hd <- read.csv(..., nrows=2)
> df <- read.csv(..., skip=2, header=FALSE)
> names(df) <- ... some operation on hd ...
> 
> >
> > John Kane
> > Kingston ON Canada
> >
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: analyst41 at hotmail.com
> >> Sent: Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:35:42 -0700 (PDT)
> >> To: r-help at r-project.org
> >> Subject: [R] csv file with two header rows
> >>
> >> Is there a way to use read.csv() on such a file without deleting one
> >> of the header rows?
> >>
> >> Thanks.
> >>
> >> ______________________________________________
> >> 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.
> >
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> 
> --
> 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
> 
> ______________________________________________
> 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.