In the current version (2.13.1) textConnection is much slower if you have a large file (>10000 lines) than using a temporary output file. Try timing a script using the two different approachs to get an appreciation for the difference.
Sent from my iPad On Aug 20, 2011, at 3:39, peter dalgaard <pda...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Aug 17, 2011, at 05:57 , Jim Holtman wrote: > >> just read in the file using the tab as the separator. if this is a problem >> because a tab might appear by itself, then use readLines to read in the >> file, gsub to replace the blank/tab with a new separator, writeLines to >> write out to a temporary and then read in from the temporary file. > > You can skip the write and read back step by reading from a text connection. > In R 2.14-to-be, there's a text= argument to read.table (and scan too), so > you'll be able to do the whole thing on the fly: > > read.table(.... text=gsub(readLines(.....)....)) > > >> >> Sent from my iPad >> >> On Aug 16, 2011, at 11:02, Matt Curcio <matt.curcio...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Hi all, >>> I have a list that I got from a web page that I would like to crunch. >>> Unfortunately, the list has some unusual separators in it. I believe >>> the columns are separated by 1 space and 1 tab. I tried to insert >>> this into the read.table( ..., sep=" \t", ...) but got an error that >>> said something like 'only one byte separators can be used. >>> I have thought about using a gsub to 'swap out' the "space + tab" and >>> replace it with commas, etc but thought there might be another way. >>> Any suggestions? >>> M >>> -- >>> >>> >>> Matt Curcio >>> M: 401-316-5358 >>> E: matt.curcio...@gmail.com >>> >>> ______________________________________________ >>> R-help@r-project.org mailing list >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >> >> ______________________________________________ >> R-help@r-project.org mailing list >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > -- > Peter Dalgaard, Professor, > Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School > Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark > Phone: (+45)38153501 > Email: pd....@cbs.dk Priv: pda...@gmail.com > "Døden skal tape!" --- Nordahl Grieg > > > > > > > ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
