Hi Arun, thanks again for your assistance.

Previously I did not read the files with the headers so I could not
search for those prefixed names. I corrected my mistake and the code
that you suggested does work.

Irucka

<-----Original Message-----> 
>From: arun [smartpink111@yahoo.com]
>Sent: 1/9/2013 11:09:13 AM
>To: iruckaE@mail2world.com
>Cc: r-help@r-project.org
>Subject: Re: [R] select partial name and full name columns
>
>
>
>Hi,
>You can use the same code:
>set.seed(15)
> dat1<-data.frame(sample(1:10,5,replace=TRUE),sample(20:30,5,replace=TR
UE),sample(1:15,5,replace=TRUE),sample(1:8,5,replace=TRUE),datetime=as.P
OSIXct(paste(rep("6/3/2011",5),c("0:00","0:30","0:35","0:40","0:45")),fo
rmat="%m/%d/%Y
>%H:%M"))
>
> colnames(dat1)[1:4]<-c("01_00060_00003","01_000060_00003_cd","15_00006
0_00003","15_00060")
>
>
>dat1
>#  01_00060_00003 01_000060_00003_cd 15_000060_00003 15_00060
>#1              7                 30               2        7
>#2              2                 28              10        4
>#3             10                 22               8        8
>#4              7                 27              11        2
>#5              4                 29              13        7
>  #           datetime
>#1 2011-06-03 00:00:00
>#2 2011-06-03 00:30:00
>#3 2011-06-03 00:35:00
>#4 2011-06-03 00:40:00
>#5 2011-06-03 00:45:00
>
>
>dat1[,c("datetime",colnames(dat1)[grep("00060_00003",colnames(dat1))])]
>#             datetime 01_00060_00003 01_000060_00003_cd
15_000060_00003
>#1 2011-06-03 00:00:00              7                 30              
2
>#2 2011-06-03 00:30:00              2                 28             
10
>#3 2011-06-03 00:35:00             10                 22              
8
>#4 2011-06-03 00:40:00              7                 27             
11
>#5 2011-06-03 00:45:00              4                 29             
13
>
>
>A.K.
>________________________________
>From: Irucka Embry <iruckaE@mail2world.com>
>To: smartpink111@yahoo.com 
>Cc: r-help@r-project.org 
>Sent: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 11:36 AM
>Subject: Re: [R] select partial name and full name columns
>
>
>Hi Arun, thank-you for your suggestion.
>
>I made a mistake previously when I suggested that there was a "prefix"
in front
>of "00060_00003" possibly suggesting that it was a string of characters
rather
>than numbers. The "prefix" in front of "00060_00003" is actually two
numbers,
>see the examples below:
>
>01_00060_00003 01_00060_00003_cd 15_00060_00003 15_00060_00003_cd
02_00060_00003
>02_00060_00003_cd
>
>How can the following code be modified to reflect the numerical rather
than
>character prefix? 
>
>dat1[,c("datetime",colnames(dat1)[grep("00060_00003",colnames(dat1))])]
>
>Thank-you.
>
>Irucka Embry
>
>
><-----Original Message-----> 
>>From: arun [smartpink111@yahoo.com]
>>Sent: 1/9/2013 7:13:05 AM
>>To: iruckaE@mail2world.com
>>Cc: r-help@r-project.org
>>Subject: Re: [R] select partial name and full name columns
>>
>>
>>
>>Hi,
>>
>>May be this is creating the problem:
>>
>>set.seed(15)
>>dat1<-data.frame(A_00060_00003=sample(1:10,5,replace=TRUE),B_00060_000
03_cd=sample(20:30,5,replace=TRUE),C_00060_00003=sample(1:15,5,replace=T
RUE),D_00060=sample(1:8,5,replace=TRUE),datetime=as..POSIXct(paste(rep("
6/3/2011",5),c("0:00","0:30","0:35","0:40","0:45")),format="%m/%d/%Y
>>%H:%M"))
>> dat1[,c("datetime",grep("00060_00003",colnames(dat1)))]
>>#Error in `[.data.frame`(dat1, , c("datetime", grep("00060_00003",
>>colnames(dat1)))) : 
>>  #undefined columns selected
>>dat1[,c("datetime",colnames(dat1)[grep("00060_00003",colnames(dat1))])
]
>>#             datetime A_00060_00003 B_00060_00003_cd C_00060_00003
>>#1 2011-06-03 00:00:00             7               30             2
>>#2 2011-06-03 00:30:00             2               28            10
>>#3 2011-06-03 00:35:00            10               22             8
>>#4 2011-06-03 00:40:00             7               27            11
>>#5 2011-06-03 00:45:00             4               29            13
>>A.K.
>>
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: Irucka Embry <iruckaE@mail2world.com>
>>To: r-help@r-project.org
>>Cc: 
>>Sent: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 5:44 AM
>>Subject: [R] select partial name and full name columns
>>
>>Hi, I have the following function:
>>
>>getDataFromDVFileCustom <- function (file, hasHeader = TRUE, separator
=
>>"\t") 
>>{
>>DVdatatmp <- as.matrix(read.table(file, sep = "\t", fill = TRUE,
>>comment.char = "#", as.is = TRUE, stringsAsFactors = FALSE, na.strings
=
>>"NA"))
>>DVdatatmper <- as.matrix(DVdatatmp[ , c("datetime",
>>grep("^_00060_00003", colnames(DVdatatmp)))])
>>retval <- as.data.frame(DVdatatmper, colClasses = c("character"), fill
=
>>TRUE, comment.char = "#", stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
>>if (ncol(retval) == 2) {
>>names(retval) <- c("dateTime", "value")
>>}
>>else if (ncol(retval) == 3) {
>>names(retval) <- c("dateTime", "value", "code")
>>}
>>if (dateFormatCheck(retval$dateTime)) {
>>retval$dateTime <- as.Date(retval$dateTime)
>>}
>>else {
>>retval$dateTime <- as.Date(retval$dateTime, format = "%m/%d/%Y")
>>}
>>retval$value <- as.numeric(retval$value)
>>return(retval)
>>}
>>
>>The function gives me this error:
>>getDataFromDVFileCustom(file)
>>Error in as.matrix(DVdatatmp[, c("datetime", grep("^_00060_00003",
>>colnames(DVdatatmp)))]) : 
>>subscript out of bounds
>>
>>I am trying to only select 3 columns (datetime and then two partial
name
>>columns that end in 00060_00003 and 00060_00003_cd. Each file that I
>>will be reading into the function has a different number of columns
and
>>a different prefix in front of 00060_00003 and 00060_00003_cd. I have
>>searched online and tried those possible solutions, but they did not
>>work for my function and data.
>>
>>What is the best way to select those 3 columns only?
>>
>>Thank-you.
>>
>>Irucka Embry 
>>
>>
>>______________________________________________
>>R-help@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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