You should be able to do something like:
my.read.table <- function(..., header=T, comment.char="", check.names=F) {
x <- read.table(..., header=header, comment.char=comment.char, check.names=check.names)
colnames(x)[1] <- gsub("#", "", colnames(x)[1])
x
}
And with your example on my clipboard:
> readLines("clipboard", -1)
[1] "#key value" "foo 1.2" "boo 1.3"
> read.table("clipboard", header=T, comment.char="", check.names=F)
#key value
1 foo 1.2
2 boo 1.3
> my.read.table("clipboard")
key value
1 foo 1.2
2 boo 1.3
>hope this helps,
Tony Plate
At Thursday 10:00 AM 9/4/2003 -0700, Vadim Ogranovich wrote:
I admit I should have been more clear in my original posting. Let me try again (and I do know that by deafulat read.table discards everything after '#' which is why I use comment.char="", my bad not to mention this).
Here is a typical example of my data file:
#key value foo 1.2 boo 1.3
As you see the header line begins with '#' and then lists the column names, however make.names will convert the raw names c("#key", "value") to c(".key", "value") while I need c("key", "value"), i.e. no dot before key. So I am asking to give us a hook to specify the function that will handle this situation.
I am not sure I understand how having this hook can result in an invalid data frame? It can return invalid names, but check.names=FALSE can too.
Thanks, Vadim
-----Original Message----- From: Martin Maechler [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 1:28 AM To: Vadim Ogranovich Cc: R-Help (E-mail) Subject: Re: [R] read.table: check.names arg - feature request
>>>>> "Vadim" == Vadim Ogranovich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>> on Wed, 3 Sep 2003 14:29:25 -0700 writes:
Vadim> Hi, I thought it would be convenient if the Vadim> check.names argument to read.table, which currently Vadim> can only be TRUE/FALSE, could take a function value Vadim> as well. If the function is supplied it should be Vadim> used instead of the default make.names.
One could, but it's not necessary in your case (see below), and it's a potential pit to fall in.. We want read.table() to return valid data frames.
Vadim> Here is an example where it can come in handy. I tend Vadim> to keep my data in coma-separated files with a header Vadim> line. The header line is prefixed with a comment sign Vadim> '#' to simplify identification of these lines. Now Vadim> when I read.table the files the '#' is converted to Vadim> '.' while I want it to be discarded.
Hmm, are you using a very old version of R, or haven't you seen the `comment.char = "#"' argument of read.table()?
Reading "?read.table", also note the note about `blank.lines.skip' , and then realize that the default for blank.lines.skip is ` !fill ' and that `fill = TRUE' for all the read.csv* and read.delim* incantation of read.table().
In sum, it's very easy to use current read.table() for your situation!
Vadim> P.S. I don't know if r-help is the right place for Vadim> feature requests. If it's not please let me know Vadim> where the right one is.
Since your proposal can be interpreted as "How do I use read.table() when my file has comment lines?", r-help has been very appropriate.
Otherwise, and particularly if the proposal is more technical, R-devel would be better suited.
Regards, Martin Maechler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://stat.ethz.ch/~maechler/ Seminar fuer Statistik, ETH-Zentrum LEO C16 Leonhardstr. 27 ETH (Federal Inst. Technology) 8092 Zurich SWITZERLAND phone: x-41-1-632-3408 fax: ...-1228 <><
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