try this: input <- readLines("yourfile.txt") # determine start start <- grep("\tBegin Main\t", input)[1] # first line if many if (length(start) == 1 && (start > 1)){ input <- tail(input, -(start - 1)) # delete heading lines } # find lines you want to delete breaks <- grep("\tBreak\t", input) if (length(breaks) > 0){ input <- input[-breaks] } # now read in your data real_input <- read.table(textConnection(input), header=TRUE) closeAllConnections()
On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 7:51 PM, Kevin Burnham <kburn...@gmail.com> wrote: > I am trying to import a series of text files generated by stimulus > presentation software. The problem that I am having is that the number of > rows I need to skip is not fixed (depending on subject's pretest behavior) > nor is the first row of the data I want always the same (the stimuli were > presented in random order). So I need to bring in the .txt file (using > readLines?), look for the row containing the text "Begin Main" (see exact > row below) and start reading data to a table from that point. > > [13] "Main Group\t1000\tBegin Main\tBegin Main\tBegin Main\t\t > \tPressed\t(any response)\tC\t25860\t\t\t\t\t" > > I would also like it to ignore the row: > [173] "Main Group\t1000\tBreak\tBreak\ > tpause3\t\t \tPressed\t(any response)\tC\t47610\t\t\t\t\t" > > which will always be the same number of rows after the "Begin Main" row. > > Thanks, > Kevin Burnham > > [[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 > 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? ______________________________________________ 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.