Hi One option are regular expressions but you can also read data with "=" as separator.
test<-read.table("input_kvpairs.csv", sep=c("="), header=F, stringsAsFactors=F) #use this function to split and extract numeric parts extract<-function(x) as.numeric(sapply(strsplit(x,","),"[",1)) # and apply the function to appropriate columns test1 <- data.frame(sapply(test[,2:3], extract), test[,4]) Now you can put names to resulting data frame see ?names Regards Petr > -----Original Message----- > From: r-help-boun...@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces@r- > project.org] On Behalf Of Frank Singleton > Sent: Friday, January 18, 2013 5:21 AM > To: r-help@r-project.org > Subject: [R] reading multiple key=value pairs per line > > Hi, > > Thanks for a great environmentfor statistical computing :-) > > I have some input data in a file ("input_kvpairs.csv") of the form > > key1=23, key2=67, key3="hello there" > key1=7, key2=22, key3="how are you" > key1=2, key2=77, key3="nice day, thanks" > > Now in my head I wish it was of the form ("input.csv") > > #key1, key2, key3 > 23, 67, "hello there" > 7, 22, "how are you" > 2, 77, "nice day, thanks" > > so I could do > > data <- read.csv("input.csv", header=TRUE) > > where the header column names are derived from the key names > dynamically, and I could access the data using normal data$key1 or > data$key2 mechanism. > > I guess I could just pre process the file first using python etc to > create a CSV file with column header derived from key names, and values > derived from key values, but I am interested to see how experienced R > folks would handle this inside R. > > Thanks, > > Frank > > ______________________________________________ > 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.