Another problem with importing from Excel: if a column is mostly numeric,
but has a few character values somewhere in the middle, S-plus imports the
column as numeric and replaces the characters with NA. Columns which have
enough characters in the first few rows (100?) are imported as character.
Columns which are mostly dates are imported as dates, but deviations from
the date format are killed.
I'd like to propose a solution: allow the option of importing from Excel
***entirely as character data***. This would enable the user to see what is
actually in the file, and to convert to numeric through functions which
compare with the original and flag deletions.
The Import routine, as it is now, runs into mysterious S-plus conventions,
which interact with mysterious Excel conventions, to produce serious data
problems. I'd be pleased to hear better alternatives than importing as
character data (which can't even be done now).
This may only be a problem to people who use S-plus in an environment where
Excel is used as a data recording or transfer tool, but surely there are
more than two of us.
Peter Wollan
wollan@mayo.edu
-----Original Message-----
>Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 10:01:59 +1200
>From: Michael Camilleri <branzmtc@branz.org.nz>
>Subject: [S] Excel Import Problem
>
>I have been having some problems with importing Excel spreadsheets into
>S-plus, and hope someone might have some insight (or at least avoid the
same
>problems).
>
>When importing a ragged array from an Excel spreadsheet (i.e. there is a
>header, and many empty cells in the first 100 rows) S-Plus does not import
>all the columns. It will stop importing columns after it encounters a
column
>of empty cells, or a block of empty cells in the first 100 rows (approx).
>S-PLus appears to only look at the first 100 or so rows to determine the
>number of columns to import.
>
>If I specify the number of columns (EndCol parameter) to match the actual
>data, then it crashes.
>
>The only way around it seems to be to put in the Excel missing value codes
>#N/A, which is a pain to do, and complicates my procedure which converts
the
>ragged array to a list.
>
>Be warned: this problem can cause data loss by failing to import data. Be
>safe and put #N/A codes in empty cells in XL.
>
>Any ideas?
>
>Michael Camilleri
>Energy and Environment Section
>BRANZ
>
>Private Bag 50908
>Porirua City
>New Zealand
>
>Ph: +64 6 235 7600
>Fax: +64 4 235 6070
>
>email: branzmtc@branz.org.nz
>http://www.branz.org.nz
>
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