Question

Taking this file as an example, I’m trying to read the data in a data.frame. From the doc (pdf file, table 1), it follows some fortran convention. I tried the following with little success:

dir <- "Uncompressed-files/"
file <- "01_hit09.par"

delim <- c("I2", "I1", "F12.6", "E10.3", "E10.3", "F5.4", "F5.4", 
"F10.4", "F4.2", "F8.6", "A15", "A15", "A15", "A15", "6I1", "6I2", 
"A1", "F7.1", "F7.1")
test <- read.fortran(paste0(dir, file), delim)

test <- read.fwf(paste0(dir, file),
                 c(2, 1, 12, 10, 10, 5, 5, 10, 4, 8,
                   15, 15, 15, 15, 6, 12, 1, 7, 7))

Any tips to specify the correct format?

Answer 1

According to ?read.fortran:

1. "E" is not a supported format.
2. “specifying ‘d > 0’ in the ‘F’ or ‘D’ format will shift
   the decimal ‘d’ places to the left, even if it is explicitly
   specified in the input file.”

So change "E" to "F" and remove all the explicit decimal formats:

file <- "01_hit09.par"
delim <- c("I2", "I1", "F12", "F10", "F10", "F5", "F5", "F10", "F4", "F8",
           "A15", "A15", "A15", "A15", "6I1", "6I2", "A1", "F7", "F7")
(test <- read.fortran(file, delim, n=10))

UPDATE: Or specify the widths correctly and use read.fwf:

 test2 <- read.fwf(file, c(2,1,12,10,10,5,5,10,4,8,15,15,15,15,
                           rep(1,6),rep(2,6),1,7,7), as.is=TRUE)