\HeaderA{read.octave}{Read Octave Text Data Files}{read.octave}
\keyword{file}{read.octave}
\begin{Description}\relax
Read a file in Octave text data format into a list.
\end{Description}
\begin{Usage}
\begin{verbatim}
read.octave(file)
\end{verbatim}
\end{Usage}
\begin{Arguments}
\begin{ldescription}
\item[\code{file}] a character string with the name of the file to read.
\end{ldescription}
\end{Arguments}
\begin{Details}\relax
This function is used to read in files in Octave text data format, as
created by \code{save -ascii} in Octave.  It knows about most of the
common types of variables, including the standard atomic (real and
complex scalars, matrices, and \eqn{N}{}-d arrays, strings, ranges, and
boolean scalars and matrices) and recursive (structs, cells, and
lists) ones, but has no guarantee to read all types.  If a type is not
recognized, a warning indicating the unknown type is issued, it is
attempted to skip the unknown entry, and \code{NULL} is used as its
value.  Note that this will give incorrect results, and maybe even
errors, in the case of unknown recursive data types.

As Octave can read MATLAB binary files, one can make the contents of
such files available to R by using Octave's load and save (as text)
facilities as an intermediary step.
\end{Details}
\begin{Value}
A list with one named component for each variable in the file.
\end{Value}
\begin{Author}\relax
Stephen Eglen \email{stephen@gnu.org} and Kurt Hornik
\end{Author}
\begin{References}\relax
\url{http://www.octave.org/}
\end{References}

