As documented here, fread can be used rather effectively as a tool for reading fixed-width files within its existing framework.
One problem with using sep = "\n", however, is that carriage return is not so uniform across systems/file types (notably, Windows, with uses \r\n).
@dselivanov's PR # 1518 currently addresses this; I'm adding my hat in the ring to vouch for its utility.
There are other uses for this besides reading fixed-width files, but that is the application I see as having the most frequent benefit.
As documented here,
freadcan be used rather effectively as a tool for reading fixed-width files within its existing framework.One problem with using
sep = "\n", however, is that carriage return is not so uniform across systems/file types (notably, Windows, with uses\r\n).@dselivanov's PR # 1518 currently addresses this; I'm adding my hat in the ring to vouch for its utility.
There are other uses for this besides reading fixed-width files, but that is the application I see as having the most frequent benefit.