R: Read file or text string using a regular expression to...

read.pattern {gsubfn} | R Documentation

## Read file or text string using a regular expression to separate fields.

### Description

Read file or text string using a regular expression to separate fields.

### Usage

    read.pattern(file, pattern, perl = FALSE, text, sep = "\01", fileEncoding = "", ...)

### Arguments

`file` | See `read.table`.
`pattern` | A regular expression.
`perl` | logical. If `TRUE` then a perl style regular expression is expected.
`text` | See `read.table`.
`sep` | This should be a character that does not appear in any field. It is used for holding an intermediate form of the text.
`fileEncoding` | See `read.table`.
`...` | Further arguments passed to `read.table`.

### Details

The parenthesized portions of the regular expression are extracted as fields.

### Value

A data.frame.

### See Also

See `strapplyc`, `read.table`.

### Examples

    # 3 space-separated fields.  The first field may have embedded spaces.
    Lines <- "this is the first field 1 2
    more text 3 4
    "
    pat <- "^(.*) +(\\S+) +(\\S+)$"
    read.pattern(text = Lines, pattern = pat, as.is = TRUE)

    # 3 space-separated fields.  The last field may have embedded spaces.
    Lines2 <- "1 2 this is the first field
    3 4 more text
    "
    pat2 <- "^(\\S+) +(\\S+) +(.*)$"
    read.pattern(text = Lines2, pattern = pat2, as.is = TRUE)

[Package gsubfn version 0.6-6 Index]