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POWhen using read.csv, why is entire row converted to <NA> is first value in row is <NA>
 

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  1. POWhen using read.csv, why is entire row converted to <NA> is first value in row is <NA>
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    <p>I've using the following <code>read.csv</code> command to read in a csv data file containing only 1,540 rows of data. For some reason if the first field in a row is empty then the entire row is returned as NA as shown below. </p> <pre><code>data = read.csv(full_path, header = TRUE, sep = ",", strip.white = TRUE, fill = TRUE, na.strings = c('NA','','NULL','#N/A'), row.names = NULL, blank.lines.skip = TRUE) </code></pre> <p>The file contains 5 useful fields followed by 365 fields which I remove. A sample of the file is shown below:</p> <pre><code>id,conm,No Data,Ticker,Cusip,,,,,,,,,,, 001010-01,ACF INDUSTRIES HOLDING CORP,TRUE,,00099V004^,,,,,,,,,,, 001040-01,AMF INC,TRUE,AMF,001688100^,,,,,,,,,,, . . 002444-01,BRUNSWICK CORP,TRUE,BC,117043109^,,,,,,,,,,, ,BURLINGTON INDUSTRIES INC,TRUE,121693972,121693972^,,,,,,,,,,, 002490-01,BURLINGTON NORTHERN INC.,TRUE,BNI,12189T104^,,,,,,,,,,, </code></pre> <p>So in the above CSV sample the data for company 'BURLINGTON INDUSTRIES INC' is lost as the id is empty.</p> <pre><code> id conm ticker cusip 2 001010-01 ACF INDUSTRIES HOLDING CORP &lt;NA&gt; 00099V004 3 001040-01 AMF INC AMF 001688100 4 001045-01 AMR CORP/DE AAMRQ 001765106 . . 80 002444-01 BRUNSWICK CORP BC 117043109 NA &lt;NA&gt; &lt;NA&gt; &lt;NA&gt; &lt;NA&gt; 82 002490-01 BURLINGTON NORTHERN INC. BNI 12189T104 </code></pre> <p>I haven't found this behaviour documented, but is this supposed to happen? There are other fields which are empty but this behaviour doesn't occur. I first tried it without <code>'row.names = NULL'</code> and <code>'blank.lines.skip = TRUE'</code> and has the same effect.</p> <p>If I remove the trailing 365 fields from the file, then the read works as expected. I have checked the number of fields trailing the rows and each one contains the same number.</p> <p>Thanks for your help.</p> <p>** UPDATE **</p> <p>I made a mistake, the error wasn't in the read.csv but in the line of code following it as outlined in the answer below.</p>
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    1. PTQuestion
    1. USgetting-there
    1. USgetting-there
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    1. COWhen I copy your sample data and paste/save it to a text file in Windows, `read.csv(...)` works (5 lines input, all the Burlington data present). So I'm inclined to think the problem's to do with your csv file. How did you generate it? Can you provide a link to the file, or at least the first 85 lines or so? I've had problems like this with files downloaded from Google docs.
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      1. POWhen using read.csv, why is entire row converted to <NA> is first value in row is <NA>
      1. USjlhoward
    2. CO@jlhoward Yes, you are right the problem was with the next line of code. I thought that I'd checked the state immediately after the read, but I hadn't. I was using a logical check on NA values to remove a line. Thanks for your help.
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      1. POWhen using read.csv, why is entire row converted to <NA> is first value in row is <NA>
      1. USgetting-there
 

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