[R-sig-DB] RODBC: probs with arg

[Gabor Grothendieck]

Try reading in the headings and data separately like this
(shown with read.xls from gdata):

library(gdata)
DF <- read.xls("bikes.xls", skip = 3, header = FALSE,
    col.names = names(read.xls("bikes.xls", skip = 1, nrows = 1)))


On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Matthieu
Stigler<matthieu.stigler using gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I'm trying to raed excel files with RODBC. This works well but I have a
> small problem, as my doc has:
>
> -line 1: gen infos
> -line 2: colnames
> -line 3: units
>
> So I wanted to skip the first line, use the second as colnames and skip the
> third.
>
> But by default odbcConnectExcel() takes the first line as the right one, so
> the 2 others lines are displayed as kind of NAs and I have wrong col
> names...
>
> #To see it, can replicate pseudo example with xlsReadWrite:
> library(xlsReadWrite)
> tdat <- data.frame( This= c("Price ", "USD",6399, 3699, 2499 ), Is=
> c("Amount ", "Unit",2, 3, 1 ),  How_my_file_looks_like= c("Date",
> "Day",39202, 39198, 39199 ),  row.names = c("", "Type","Pro machine", "Road
> racer", "Streetfire" ) )
> write.xls( tdat, "bikes.xls" )
>
> #get the data
> library(RODBC)
> chan<-odbcConnectExcel("bikes.xls")
> sh1 <- sqlFetch(chan, "Sheet1")
> head(sh1)
> odbcCloseAll()
>
>           F1   This      Is How_my_file_looks_like
> 1        <NA> Price  Amount                    Date
> 2        Type    USD    Unit                    Day
> 3 Pro machine   6399       2                  39202
> 4  Road racer   3699       3                  39198
> 5  Streetfire   2499       1                  39199
>
> See the message on the help file:
>
> It is assumed that the first row of the table in the worksheet
>     contains column headings: the driver parameter 'FirstRowHasNames =
>     0' is supposed to turn this off (giving column names 'F1' ...) but
>     it is broken in many versions of the drivers.
>
> I don't know exactly where this arg should be added...  It doesn't work in
> odbcConnectExcel("bikes.xls",FirstRowHasNames=0)
>
> So I tried something like:
>
> channel3 <-odbcDriverConnect("DRIVER=Microsoft Excel Driver
> (*.xls);DBQ=bikes.xls; ReadOnly=False;FirstRowHasNames=0")
>
> But his doesn't do anything... Do you see how I should do it? And if I
> manage to escape the first line, can I avoid the problem of the third line?
>
> I tried alternatively usign xlsReadWrite, whihc can "skip" lines, but then
> the first lines after colnames can't be escaped and hence the columns are
> seen as factors:
> sh2<-read.xls(file="bikes.xls", sheet=1, from=2)
> sh2
>
> So do you have a n idea how I can solve my problem?
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
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>
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