[R] Reading Binary Files

[Henrik Bengtsson]

Argument 'size' is what you are looking for, cf. help(readBin).
Whenever reading binary files this way, I strongly recommend that you
are explicit about all arguments of readBin(), e.g.

readBin(con, what=integer(), size=2, signed=TRUE, endian="little", n=n);

For instance, you probably do not want 'endian' to be dependent on the
platform (see help) you run on, but instead be specific to the file
format you are reading.

/Henrik

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 8:04 AM,  <Steve_Friedman at nps.gov> wrote:
>
> Hello
>
> I'm encountering some difficulty correctly reading binary files. The binary
> files store data as "short"  rather than "double" , "int", or any of the
> other  modes of the vector being read.
>
> The data represents a regular grid of size 419 rows by 264 columns, to make
> it more interesting, the data are daily records, for a total of 37 years.
> The file size is therefore 419(rows) * 264(columns) * 365(days) * 37(years)
> long.
>
> The product  of these dimensions is 1493869080 records.
>
> I'm using the following code to read these into R (windows 2.8.1 )
>
>  con <- file(file.choose(), open="rb")
>  Year66 <- readBin(con, integer, signed=TRUE, n = 40374840)
> close(con)
>
> length(Year66)
>
> returns 2046396
>
> I'm betting that I'm defining the "what" incorrectly, but after numerous
> attempts with different choices I'm wondering if readBin can handle "short"
> values?
>
> Any help is greatly appreciated.
>
> Steve
>
>
> Steve Friedman Ph. D.
> Spatial Statistical Analyst
> Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Park
> 950 N Krome Ave (3rd Floor)
> Homestead, Florida 33034
>
> Steve_Friedman at nps.gov
> Office (305) 224 - 4282
> Fax     (305) 224 - 4147
>
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