read.fwf                package:base                R Documentation

Read Fixed Width Format Files

Description:

     Read a ``table'' of fixed width formatted data into a
     `data.frame'.

Usage:

     read.fwf(file, widths, sep = "\t", as.is = FALSE,
              skip = 0, row.names, col.names, n = -1, ...)

Arguments:

    file: the name of the file which the data are to be read from.

          Alternatively, `file' can be a `connection', which will be
          opened if necessary, and if so closed at the end of the
          function call. 

  widths: integer vector, giving the widths of the fixed-width fields
          (of one line).

     sep: character; the separator used internally; should be a
          character that does not occur in the file.

   as.is: see `read.table'.

    skip: number of initial lines to skip; see `read.table'.

row.names: see `read.table'.

col.names: see `read.table'.

       n: the maximum number of records (lines) to be read, defaulting
          to no limit.

     ...: further arguments to be passed to `read.table'.

Details:

     Fields that are of zero-width or are wholly beyond the end of the
     line in `file' are replaced by `NA'.

Value:

     A `data.frame' as produced by `read.table' which is called
     internally.

Author(s):

     Brian Ripley for R version: original `Perl' by Kurt Hornik.

See Also:

     `scan' and `read.table'.

Examples:

     ff <- tempfile()
     cat(file=ff, "123456", "987654", sep="\n")
     read.fwf(ff, width=c(1,2,3))    #> 1 23 456 \ 9 87 654
     unlink(ff)
     cat(file=ff, "123", "987654", sep="\n")
     read.fwf(ff, width=c(1,0, 2,3))    #> 1 NA 23 NA \ 9 NA 87 654
     unlink(ff)

