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Read file with decimals as comma not working in R cordinates?


I have received a field with XY coordinates that have a decimal as a comma, but I cannot correctly open this file in R.

Here is how my data should look like - note comma as decimal indicator in y coordinates:

"OBJECTID";"x_coord";"y_coord"
"1";"664936,3059";"5582773,2319"   # comma as separator
"2";"604996,5803";"5471445,4964"
"3";"772846,82";"5353980,45"
"4";"552181,8639";"5535271,7626"
"5";"604022,9011";"5470134,0649"

But, specifying the dec = ',' in read.csv just reads it as a normal values:

xy <- read.delim(paste(path, "test_decimals2.txt", sep = '/'), 
               sep = '\t', dec = ",",skip = 0)

Missing comma separator from y coordinates:

  OBJECTID    x_coord     y_coord
1        1 6649363059 55827732319   # not a comma separator anymore
2        2 6049965803 54714454964
3        3   77284682   535398045
4        4 5521818639 55352717626
5        5 6040229011 54701340649

I have tried to convert the data to txt, etc. but still have the same problem. Do someone know how to make sure that dec = ',' will work correctly? Thank you!

(coordintaes are in UTM, that's why they look a bit weird)


Solution

  • I copied the data into a txt file and this worked just fine for me:

    read.csv2("test_decimals2.txt")
    

    Out:

      OBJECTID  x_coord y_coord
    1        1 664936.3 5582773
    2        2 604996.6 5471445
    3        3 772846.8 5353980
    4        4 552181.9 5535272
    5        5 604022.9 5470134