Read data using an XML index file

Read one or several dataset(s) using an XML index file specifying the data sets to read and the structure of each

Usage

readXML(name,
           dir,
           index = "index.xml",
           TZ = "GMT",
           trace = 0)

Arguments

name

Name for the dataset that will be matched against the name attribute of datasets as they are given in the index file.

dir

Path to the directory where the index file and all data files should be found.

index

Name (short) of the index file. This file must be in the directory given by dir.

TZ

A time zone as in strptime. The time zone "GMT" should be preferred, since it should work on all platforms and can cope with dates in the remote past.

trace

Level of verbosity (integer). Can be used to trace the successive steps by short indications.

Details

The XML index file is parsed within R. Then according to the indications within the index file, other files are read (e.g. csv files). In this way, data returned as a list can contain heterogeneous data: Over Threshold (OT) data, missing periods, MAX data, etc. Various pieces of information are also stored in list elements with name containing the "info" string.

This function requires the CRAN package XML.

Value

A list with the data read.

info

General information about the data: varName, varShorlLab and varUnit give the variable name unit and short label.

OTinfo

Information for the Over the Threshold (OT).

OTdata

Over the Threshold (OT) data.

OTmissing

Missing periods within the OTdata period.

MAXinfo

Information for the MAX (\(r\)-largest) supplement data.

MAXdata

MAX supplement data.

OTSinfo

Information for the Over the Threshold Supplement (OTS) data.

OTSdata

Over the Threshold (OT) supplement data.

Author

Yves Deville

Note

The flat files (usually .csv files) can also be read in a more conventional way e.g. through read.table. However, conform to the index.xml examples or to the index.xsd schema to see how to adjust the reading of parameters such as sep, etc.

Examples

if (FALSE) {
## Examples of datasets that can be read
## Browse should work for browsers with xslt support
browseURL(file.path(system.file("Rendata", package = "Renext"), "index.xml"))
if (require(XML)) {
   ## use 'index.xml' file shiped with Renext
   dir1 <- system.file("Rendata", package = "Renext")
   BrestNew1 <- readXML(name = "Brest", dir = dir1)
   test1 <- readXML(name = "test1", dir = dir1)
}
}