getHeaders#

Purpose#

Returns the variable names in a dataset as a string array.

Format#

headers = getHeaders(fname)#

Parameters:: fname (string) – the name of the data file.
Returns:: headers (Px1 string array) – contains the variable names in the file.

Examples#

Excel Data#

// Get file name with full path
fname = getGAUSSHome("examples/yarn.xlsx");

/*
** Read headers from the first row of the first
** sheet of the XLSX file
*/
headers = getHeaders(fname);

After the above code, headers will contain:

yarn_length
amplitude
load
cycles

GAUSS dataset#

// Get file name with full path
fname = getGAUSSHome("examples/fueleconomy.dat");

// Read headers from the dataset
headers = getHeaders(fname);

After the above code, headers will contain:

annual_fuel_cost
engine_displacement

Stata dataset#

// Get file name with full path
fname = getGAUSSHome("examples/auto2.dta");

// Read headers from the dataset
headers = getHeaders(fname);

After the above code, headers will contain:

make
price
mpg
rep78
headroom
trunk
weight
length
turn
displacement
gear_ratio
foreign

SAS dataset#

// Get file name with full path
fname = getGAUSSHome("examples/detroit.dta");

// Read headers from the dataset
headers = getHeaders(fname);

After the above code, headers will contain:

year
ft_police
unemployment
manufacture_employ
gun_license
gun_registration
homicide_clearance
num_white_males
non_manufacture_employ
govt_employ
hourly_earn
weekly_earn
homicide
accident_death
assault

The supported dataset types are CSV, Excel (XLS, XLSX), HDF5 , GAUSS Matrix (FMT) , GAUSS Dataset (DAT), Stata (DTA) and SAS (SAS7BDAT, SAS7BCAT).

Remarks#

For convenience, getHeaders() will try to read variable names from Excel and CSV files. However, since these file types do not have a standard method specification for variable names, the first row of the file will be returned.

CSV file names with a file extension other than .csv will need to start with the schema csv://.

HDF5 file names must start with the schema h5://