How do I read a text file into R when the data is not in a table

Question

I got a very long telephone log as a text file and I have tried to read it into R but it is not really working out. The text has a structure but it is most certainly not a t

Answer 1

With multi.line = TRUE in the scan function, a record should end with two end-of-lines. I did this with textConnection around your file, but you would use a valid file name:

inp <- scan(textConnection(txt), multi.line=TRUE, 
             what=list(place="character", tline1="character", 
             cline1="character", cline2 ="character", cline3="character"), sep="\n")
Read 5 records
> str(as.data.frame(inp))
'data.frame':   5 obs. of  5 variables:
 $ place : Factor w/ 1 level "TheInstitute 5467": 1 1 1 1 1
 $ tline1: Factor w/ 2 levels "  telephone line 4125526987 x 4567",..: 1 1 2 1 1
 $ cline1: Factor w/ 4 levels "  bump phone line 4125527777",..: 2 3 1 1 4
 $ cline2: Factor w/ 4 levels "  blay blay blah who knows what",..: 2 1 3 4 1
 $ cline3: Factor w/ 3 levels "","  blay blay blah who knows what",..: 1 1 2 3 1
> as.data.frame(inp)
              place                             tline1
1 TheInstitute 5467   telephone line 4125526987 x 4567
2 TheInstitute 5467   telephone line 4125526987 x 4567
3 TheInstitute 5467    telephone line 412552999 x 4999
4 TheInstitute 5467   telephone line 4125526987 x 4567
5 TheInstitute 5467   telephone line 4125526987 x 4567
                        cline1
1    datetime 2011110516 12:56
2    datetime 2011110516 12:58
3   bump phone line 4125527777
4   bump phone line 4125527777
5    datetime 2011110516 14:56
                                                           cline2
1   blay blay blah who knows what, but anyway it may have a comma
2                                   blay blay blah who knows what
3                                       datetime 2011110516 12:59
4                                       datetime 2011110516 13:51
5                                   blay blay blah who knows what
                                                           cline3
1                                                                
2                                                                
3                                   blay blay blah who knows what
4   blay blay blah who knows what, but anyway it may have a comma
5