delete the first line of a .txt file with R

Question

I have a lot of very large txt-files that have a header I would like to remove.
Is there a way to do this without reading in the entire file?
Possibly using the system() command?
I found some ideas here but I haven't been able to make them work. I am using Windows 7 and R Version 3.2.2.

Here is what I have tried:

> systCommand <- paste0("echo '$(tail -n +2 ",  myFilePath, ")' > ", myFilePath)
> system(systCommand, intern=T)
Error in system(systCommand, intern = T) : 'echo' not found

I am pretty sure that this is because I am using windows?

If I may ask - why do you want remove header in the first place? — rbm, Nov 19 '15 at 14:18

score -3 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 19 '15 at 14:41

-3

after reading in

count_table <- read.table("your path/filename.txt")
head(count_table)

if the first row is header,

c_table <- count_table[-1,]
head(c_table)

then, the first line of header can be removed

answered Nov 19 '15 at 14:41

cying Jack

11
3

I would like to avoid reading in the entire file.. This does not help. – statsNoob Nov 19 '15 at 15:03

delete the first line of a .txt file with R

1 Answers1