[R] dataframe of unequal rows

[Berton Gunter]

test.txt:

"V1"	"V2"	"V3"	"V4"
1	2	3	4
5	6	7	
		8	9
10			11
12	13	14	15

The fields are delimited by tab characters ("\t")


In R:

> read.table(choose.files(),sep='\t',head=TRUE)

  V1 V2 V3 V4
1  1  2  3  4
2  5  6  7 NA
3 NA NA  8  9
4 10 NA NA 11
5 12 13 14 15

(I use choose.files() on Windows to select the file via the standard file
browser widget)

-- Bert Gunter
Genentech Non-Clinical Statistics
South San Francisco, CA
 
"The business of the statistician is to catalyze the scientific learning
process."  - George E. P. Box
 
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sachin J [mailto:sachinj.2006 at yahoo.com] 
> Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 10:45 AM
> To: Berton Gunter; R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: RE: [R] dataframe of unequal rows
> 
> Bert,
>  
> I tried readLines. It reads the data as is, but cant access 
> individual columns. Still cant figure out how to accomplish 
> this. An example would be of great help.
>  
> PS: How do you indicate which fields are present in a record 
> with less than the
> full number? - Via known delimiters for all fields. 
> 
> TIA
> Sachin
>  
> 
> Berton Gunter <gunter.berton at gene.com> wrote:
> 
> 	How do you indicate which fields are present in a 
> record with less than the
> 	full number? Via known delimiters for all fields? Via 
> the order of values
> 	(fields are filled in order and only the last fields in 
> a record can
> 	therefore be missing)?
> 	
> 	If the former, see the "sep" parameter in read.table() 
> and friends.
> 	If the latter, one way is to open the file as a 
> connection and use
> 	readLines()(you would check how many values were 
> present and fill in the
> 	NA's as needed).There may be better ways, though. 
> ?connections will get you
> 	started.
> 	
> 	-- Bert Gunter
> 	Genentech Non-Clinical Statistics
> 	South San Francisco, CA
> 	
> 	"The business of the statistician is to catalyze the 
> scientific learning
> 	process." - George E. P. Box
> 	
> 	
> 	
> 	> -----Original Message-----
> 	> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
> 	> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf 
> Of Sachin J
> 	> Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 9:14 AM
> 	> To: R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> 	> Subject: [R] dataframe of unequal rows
> 	> 
> 	> Hi,
> 	> 
> 	> How can I read data of unequal number of observations 
> 	> (rows) as is (i.e. without introducing NA for columns of less 
> 	> observations than the maximum. Example:
> 	> 
> 	> A B C D
> 	> 1 10 1 12
> 	> 2 10 3 12
> 	> 3 10 4 12
> 	> 4 10 
> 	> 5 10 
> 	> 
> 	> Thanks in advance.
> 	> 
> 	> Sachin
> 	> 
> 	> 
> 	> 
> 	> 
> 	> ---------------------------------
> 	> 
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> 	> 
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> 	> 
> 	
> 	
> 
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