Get the number of lines in a text file using R

Question

Is there a way to get the number of lines in a file without importing it?

So far this is what I am doing

myfiles <- list.files(pattern=\"*.dat\")
         


        

Answer 1

If you are using linux, this might work for you:

# total lines on a file through system call to wc, and filtering with awk
target_file   <- "your_file_name_here"
total_records <- as.integer(system2("wc",
                                    args = c("-l",
                                             target_file,
                                             " | awk '{print $1}'"),
                                    stdout = TRUE))

in your case:

#
lapply(myfiles, function(x){
                         as.integer(system2("wc",
                                            args = c("-l",
                                                     x,
                                                     " | awk '{print $1}'"),
                                            stdout = TRUE))
                      }
                  )