read csv, skip three lines but include header names in data.frame

Question

I want to read csv file skip three lines (except header) but include header names in data.frame. I've tried following but header names are wrong:

> sine = read.csv(file="sine.csv",head=TRUE,sep=",", skip=3, check.names=TRUE)
> colnames(sine)
 [1] "X0"     "X0.0"   "X0.0.1" "X0.0.2" "None"   "X1.0"   "X0.0.3" "None.1" "X.."   
[10] "X0.1"   "X0.2"

When I read dataset without skipping three lines header names are OK:

> sine = read.csv(file="sine.csv",head=TRUE,sep=",", skip=0, check.names=TRUE)
> colnames(sine)
 [1] "reset"                                                                                    
 [2] "angle"                                                                                    
 [3] "sine"                                                                                     
 [4] "multiStepPredictions.actual"                                                              
 [5] "multiStepPredictions.1"                                                                   
 [6] "anomalyScore"                                                                             
 [7] "multiStepBestPredictions.actual"                                                          
 [8] "multiStepBestPredictions.1"                                                               
 [9] "anomalyLabel"                                                                             
[10] "multiStepBestPredictions.multiStep.errorMetric..altMAPE..steps..1..window.1000.field.sine"
[11] "multiStepBestPredictions.multiStep.errorMetric..aae..steps..1..window.1000.field.sine"

What I'm doing wrong?

The solution, via the linked answer, is `read.csv("sine.csv", header = FALSE, skip = 4, col.names = names(read.csv("sine.csv", nrow = 0)))`. The 4 is to allow for the header line being skipped as well. — Rich Scriven, Jan 05 '16 at 22:03
@RichardScriven please post this as an answer so I can accept it. — Wakan Tanka, Jan 05 '16 at 22:23
The solution in my comment came directly from the linked answer, so please go there and upvote MrFlick since he was the original poster. He should get the credit for that. — Rich Scriven, Jan 05 '16 at 23:21

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

something like this,

foo <- read.csv("http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/r/faq/test.csv", header=T)
foo
#    make   model mpg weight price
# 1   amc concord  22   2930  4099
# 2   amc   oacer  17   3350  4749
# 3   amc  spirit  22   2640  3799
# 4 buick century  20   3250  4816
# 5 buick electra  15   4080  7827
colnames(foo)
# [1] "make"   "model"  "mpg"    "weight" "price" 

bar <- read.csv("http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/r/faq/test.csv", header=T, skip=3)
bar
#     amc  spirit X22 X2640 X3799
# 1 buick century  20  3250  4816
# 2 buick electra  15  4080  7827
colnames(bar)
# [1] "amc"    "spirit" "X22"    "X2640"  "X3799"

As Richard Scriven pointed out below my initial answer did not work, don't know how I missed that. Found this SO answer and made the solution below.

all_content = readLines("http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/r/faq/test.csv")
skip_second = all_content[c(c(-2:-4))]
foo2 = read.csv(textConnection(skip_second), 
                header = TRUE, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
foo2
#    make   model mpg weight price
# 1 buick century  20   3250  4816
# 2 buick electra  15   4080  7827
colnames(foo2)
# [1] "make"   "model"  "mpg"    "weight" "price"

Thank you I've upvoted but @RichardScriven solution seems more simple. — Wakan Tanka, Jan 05 '16 at 23:24
@WakanTanka, please post Richard Scriven's solution as an answer and have the question closed. — Eric Fail, Jan 14 '16 at 18:17

read csv, skip three lines but include header names in data.frame

1 Answers1