I was not able to follow the solution posted. Could you demonstrate this technique on an example data set. Thanks!
dat <- data.frame(a = letters[1:3], b = LETTERS[1:3], c = 1:3, d = 3:1) On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 1:13 PM, Charles C. Berry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, 2 Jul 2008, Ben Tupper wrote: > >> >> On Jul 2, 2008, at 6:53 AM, Philip James Smith wrote: >> >>> Hi R people: >>> >>> I have huge files with as many as 5000 columns. I'd really like to read >>> only certain columns of those files. I know column names I want to read. >>> >>> I looked at the documentation of read.csv . Although there is a col.names >>> option, it allows users to specify the names of the columns, rather than to >>> pick the columns of interest. >>> >>> Any suggestions on how to pick the columns I want to read only, rather >>> than the entire file, would be greatly appreciated. > > > There is a unix utility called 'cut' that enables stuff like > > columns.1.3.5.to.7 <- read.csv( pipe( "cut -d, -f1,3,5-7 your.file" ) ) > > and using > > col.pos <- match(names.of.variables.you.want, > scan("your.file", what=character(0), nlines=1 ) > > will enable you to set up the call to pipe. > > HTH, > > Chuck > >>> >> >> Hello, >> >> I think you want explicitly set the colClasses argument such that the >> columns you *don't* want are set to NULL and all others are set to >> appropriate classes. >> >> Cheers, >> Ben >> >> >> >> >> >> >>> Phil Smith >>> Duluth, GA >>> >>> ______________________________________________ >>> 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. >> >> Ben Tupper >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> I GoodSearch for Ashwood Waldorf School. >> >> Raise money for your favorite charity or school just by searching the >> Internet with GoodSearch - www.goodsearch.com - powered by Yahoo! >> >> ______________________________________________ >> 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. >> > > Charles C. Berry (858) 534-2098 > Dept of Family/Preventive > Medicine > E mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] UC San Diego > http://famprevmed.ucsd.edu/faculty/cberry/ La Jolla, San Diego 92093-0901 > > ______________________________________________ > 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. > ______________________________________________ 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.