This is the case where '\t' is the tab character; '\\t' would give you the backslash followed by 't' which is not what you want.
On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 8:19 PM, David Winsemius <dwinsem...@comcast.net> wrote: > > On May 31, 2010, at 8:14 PM, jim holtman wrote: > >> try this: >> >> input <- readLines("yourfile.txt") >> # determine start >> start <- grep("\tBegin Main\t", input)[1] # first line if many > > Puzzled. I thought backslashes in grepping patterns needed to be doubled? I > guess not. > > -- > David. > >> 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. > > David Winsemius, MD > West Hartford, CT > > -- 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.