CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rimport
Shaun
Shaun

Reputation: 949

R - Import .dat files into R, which are not delimited

I'm trying to import a .dat file into R. The file is not delimited Therefore i need to specify the position and type for each variable. In SAS, I can do this with a code that looks like this. 

DATA imported_data; 
INFILE " C:\dataset.dat"
INPUT 
Var1 $ 1-2
Var2 $ 3-8
Var3 9-18
Var4 19-20
; 
RUN;

The variables Var1 and Var2 are character ($) and their position is 1-2, and 3-8 within the data file.

Is there a R code that can be used in same way to import the file to R?

Thanks

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2116

Answers (1)

RyanFrost
RyanFrost

Reputation: 1428

You can do this with readr's read_fwf (read fixed width file).

library(readr)

data <- read_fwf("C:\dataset.dat",
                 col_positions = fwf_positions(start = c(1, 3, 9, 19),
                                               end = c(2, 8, 18, 20)))

read_fwf will try to figure out the types of each column, but if there are mistakes you can specify the types yourself using the col_types argument.

Upvotes: 1

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