For the sample of data that you provided, I would read it fine:
> x <- read.table('clipboard')
> x
V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8
1 20080204131646 2 32 560 63 6 0 NA
2 20080204131646 2 33 152 -1 7 0 NA
3 20080204150043 2 -32767 0 9999 0 65535 NA
4 20080204182117 2 1 283 -1 7 0 NA
5 20080204182117 2 2 838 34 6 0 NA
6 20080204182117 2 3 266 36 6 0 NA
My guess is that you have imbalanced quotes in your data. Try
read.table(..., quote='')
to turn off the interpretation of quotes. Also use 'count.fields' to see
where the variation is. If you post the actual data, that would help.
On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 3:59 PM, Eric McKibben <emck...@clemson.edu> wrote:
> Hi Steve,
> Thanks for the reply. My initial thought was just as you indicated, one of
> the rows must be missing an element. Interestingly, all of the rows in that
> text file had 8 columns. I went directly to the line in the text file
> indicated in the error and there was nothing unusual about that line as far
> as I could tell.
>
> On a related note, is it possible to import one set of characters at a time
> to create a series of vectors that I could then bind together into a data
> frame? For example, lets say I want the first 4 characters in a column that
> contains the following data 20080204131646. Could I assign these characters
> to a vector called year? Could I then assign characters five and six to
> another vector called day? If so, how do I do this?
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Eric S McKibben
> Industrial-Organizational Psychology Graduate Student
> Clemson University
> Clemson, SC
> ----- Original Message ----- From: <steve_fried...@nps.gov>
> To: "Eric McKibben" <emck...@clemson.edu>
> Cc: <r-help@r-project.org>; <r-help-boun...@r-project.org>
> Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 11:01 AM
> Subject: Re: [R] error in importing text files
>
>
>
> Eric,
>>
>> The error suggests that the file has an inconsistent number of
>> attributes. You should inspect the file to make sure that each line has
>> the same number of expected attributes (columns). If one or more is
>> missing, it suggests that the data collection process from the Palm Pilot
>> is not what you expect it to be. Perhaps, participants, just didn't answer
>> all of the questions or something like that.
>>
>>
>>
>> Steve Friedman Ph. D.
>> Spatial Statistical Analyst
>> Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Park
>> 950 N Krome Ave (3rd Floor)
>> Homestead, Florida 33034
>>
>> steve_fried...@nps.gov
>> Office (305) 224 - 4282
>> Fax (305) 224 - 4147
>>
>>
>>
>> "Eric McKibben"
>> <emck...@clemson.
>> edu> To
>> Sent by: <r-help@r-project.org>
>> r-help-boun...@r- cc
>> project.org
>> Subject
>> [R] error in importing text files
>> 05/18/2009 10:42
>> AM AST
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Hello All:
>> I am very new to R and am trying to import some (107) text files into R
>> while simultaneously manipulating the data into a structure that I can
>> use.
>> Below is a description of what I am trying to ultimately accomplish.
>> However, I find that I am unable to even read one file into R using the
>> read.table function. I get the following error:
>>
>>> test<-read.table("test4.txt")
>>>
>> Error in scan(file, what, nmax, sep, dec, quote, skip, nlines, na.strings,
>> :
>> line 16 did not have 8 elements
>>
>> So, I would like to resolve the error first, and then ultimately
>> accomplish
>> the goal outlined below. I understand that my ultimate goal may require
>> multiple steps. I am open to that.
>>
>>
>> First, a little background: Data were collected from 107 participants on
>> palm pilots. Participants were randomly beeped 5 times throughout the day
>> for 5 days resulting in a total of 25 measurement occasions. Participants
>> responded to beeps only when they were able to (not in class, driving,
>> etc). Thus, most participants completed far less than 25 measurement
>> occasions. During each measurement occasion participants responded to 32
>> questions by moving a slider on a 100 point scale. The palms recorded the
>> date, time, palm pilot ID number, response to the beep (non-response =
>> -32767), question number, response latency in milliseconds, response to
>> each question, and three addtiional data points of no interest. The data
>> are arranged in an unstacked (long) text file such that each line contains
>> all of the above information and there are 34 (32 responses plus 2 extra
>> lines of meaningless data) lines per measurement occasion (upto 850 lines
>> of data if all 34 lines are present !
>> for all 25 measurment occasions). Below is an example of how the data are
>> arranged.
>>
>> 20080204131646 2 32 560 63 6 0
>> ""
>> 20080204131646 2 33 152 -1 7 0
>> ""
>> 20080204150043 2 -32767 0 9999 0 65535
>> ""
>> 20080204182117 2 1 283 -1 7 0
>> ""
>> 20080204182117 2 2 838 34 6 0
>> ""
>> 20080204182117 2 3 266 36 6 0
>> ""
>> Year/Month/Day/Time Palm ID Response/Q# Latency Response 3
>> meangingless columns The dataset presented above begins with question
>> 32
>> of one measurement occasion on Febraury 4, 2008 taken at 13:16:46. The
>> next line (33) is in the datafile because participants had to click a
>> button to exit the measurement occasion. You then see the beginning of
>> another measurement occasion (20080204192117) in which the participant did
>> not respond (-32767). The next measurement occasion begins on the next
>> line which actually starts with response 2 because participants were
>> required to read a screen and click through prior to answering any
>> questions. Thus, anytime participants simply read an instruction page
>> responses are coded as a -1. What I would like to do is write code to
>> automatically import these 107 files into R and structure them
>> appropriately while importing them. Furthermore, I would like for the
>> code
>> to use conditional statements so that whenever it encounters a -32767!
>> it inserts 32 variables (columns) with missing data and whenever it
>> encounters a -1 it deletes that column all together. I would also like
>> the
>> code to separate the combined year/month/day/time column into 4 separate
>> columns (year, month, day, time). Finally, I would like the code to stack
>> the 32 responses during each measurement occasion so that I have 32
>> columns
>> of reponses plus columns for year, month, day, and latency, but leave each
>> measurment occasion unstacked.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Eric S McKibben
>> Industrial-Organizational Psychology Graduate Student
>> Clemson University
>> Clemson, SC
>> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> 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<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<http://www.r-project.org/posting-guide.html>
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
--
Jim Holtman
Cincinnati, OH
+1 513 646 9390
What is the problem that you are trying to solve?
[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
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