getQWDataFromFile.r

#' Basic Data Import
#'
#' Imports data from user-supplied data file. Specifically used to import water quality data for use in the WRTDS package.
#' For WRTDS usage, the first column is expected to be dates, the second column remarks (specifically < if censored data),
#' and the third column is measured values.  There can be additional columns of data, for each column of data, there should
#' be a remark column preceeding.
#'
#' @param filePath string specifying the path to the file
#' @param fileName string name of file to open
#' @param hasHeader logical true if the first row of data is the column headers
#' @param separator string character that separates data cells
#' @keywords data import file
#' @return retval dataframe
#' @export
#' @examples
#' # Examples of how to use getQWDataFromFile:
#' # Change the file path and file name to something meaningful:
#' filePath <- '~/RData/'  # Sample format
#' fileName <- 'ChoptankRiverNitrate.csv'
#' #rawSampleData <- getQWDataFromFile(filePath,fileName, separator=";")
getQWDataFromFile <- function (filePath,fileName,hasHeader=TRUE,separator=","){
  totalPath <- paste(filePath,fileName,sep="");
  tmp <- read.delim(  
    totalPath, 
    header = hasHeader,
    sep=separator,
    colClasses=c('character'),
    fill = TRUE, 
    comment.char="#")
  
  retval <- as.data.frame(tmp, stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
  return (retval)
}