<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> .Ini files are, for lack of a better description, ancient.
In this case a device is creating the INI files as part of an experiment, so
the file format cannot be changed (at least easily).
I've looked at XML files from time to time and I'm amazed more don't
complain how bloated, if not wasteful, they are. I've seen XML files that
were megabytes long when they held kilobytes worth of data. INI files may
be ancient, but they can be efficient and effective compared with XML. In
some cases, "newer" may not really be better (but "newer" may have the
"momentum" behind it).
"Gabor Grothendieck" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> In thinking about this a bit more here is an even shorter solution where
> Lines.raw is as before:
>
> # Lines <- readLines("myfile.ini")
> Lines <- readLines(textConnection(Lines.raw))
> Lines2 <- chartr("[]", "==", Lines)
> DF <- read.table(textConnection(Lines2), as.is = TRUE, sep = "=", fill =
> TRUE)
> L <- DF$V1 == ""
> subset(transform(DF, V3 = V2[which(L)[cumsum(L)]])[1:3], V1 != "")
Thanks for your helpful suggestions, Gabor. Perhaps your "zoo" option is
more elegant, but I try to use as few packages as possible, so this option
seemed the best for me.
Since in my problem the structure of the INI sections is almost static and
always present, I extended your example to create an in-memory list of
everything in the INI file with this function:
# Prototype of how to read INI files to process olfactometer data
# efg, 13 June 2007
# Thanks to Gabor Grothendieck for helpful suggestions in the R-Help
# mailing list on how to parse the INI file.
Parse.INI <- function(INI.filename)
{
connection <- file(INI.filename)
Lines <- readLines(connection)
close(connection)
Lines <- chartr("[]", "==", Lines) # change section headers
connection <- textConnection(Lines)
d <- read.table(connection, as.is = TRUE, sep = "=", fill = TRUE)
close(connection)
L <- d$V1 == "" # location of section breaks
d <- subset(transform(d, V3 = V2[which(L)[cumsum(L)]])[1:3],
V1 != "")
ToParse <- paste("INI.list$", d$V3, "$", d$V1, " <- '",
d$V2, "'", sep="")
INI.list <- list()
eval(parse(text=ToParse))
return(INI.list)
}
Here's an example of using the above function (I'll put the sample input
file below):
INI1 <- Parse.INI("sample.ini")
# Explore INI contents
summary(INI1)
INI1$SystemSetup$OlfactometerCode
INI1$DefaultLevels
unlist(INI1$DefaultLevels)
INI1$Map
INI1$Map$port1
as.integer( unlist( strsplit(INI1$Map$port1, ",") ) )
= = = = =
Sample output:
> INI1 <- Parse.INI("sample.ini")
>
> # Explore INI contents
> summary(INI1)
Length Class Mode
SystemSetup 1 -none- list
Files 8 -none- list
DefaultLevels 4 -none- list
OdorNames 2 -none- list
Map 3 -none- list
>
> INI1$SystemSetup$OlfactometerCode
[1] "3"
> INI1$DefaultLevels
$FC00
[1] "50"
$FC01
[1] "100"
$FC02
[1] "50"
$FC10
[1] "50"
> unlist(INI1$DefaultLevels)
FC00 FC01 FC02 FC10
"50" "100" "50" "50"
> INI1$Map
$port0
[1] "0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0"
$port1
[1] "0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0"
$port2
[1] "0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0"
>
> INI1$Map$port1
[1] "0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0"
> as.integer( unlist( strsplit(INI1$Map$port1, ",") ) )
[1] 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
= = = = =
Sample input file, sample.ini:
[SystemSetup]
OlfactometerCode=3
[Files]
prelog0=Part0.txt
date0=2:06:27.461 PM 6/9/2007
note0=group1-1
name0=group1
prelog1=Part1.txt
date1=2:09:16.809 PM 6/9/2007
note1=group1-1
name1=group1-1
[DefaultLevels]
FC00=50
FC01=100
FC02=50
FC10=50
[OdorNames]
port0=None
port1=None
[Map]
port0=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
port1=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
port2=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
= = = = =
Thanks again, Gabor!
efg
Earl F. Glynn
Scientific Programmer
Stowers Institute for Medical Research
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