[R] rowspan and readHTMLTable

[Chris Stubben]

I'm trying to read html tables with lots of rowspan attributes, for 
example...

x<-htmlParse("<table>
   <tr><td rowspan=2>ab</td><td>X</td></tr>
   <tr><td rowspan=2>YZ</td></tr>
   <tr><td>c</td></tr>
</table>")

 readHTMLTable(x, which=1)
  V1   V2
1 ab    X
2 YZ <NA>
3  c <NA>

Does anyone know how to use the rowspan attributes and repeat cell 
values  to format a table like this?

  V1   V2
1 ab    X
2 ab   YZ
3  c   YZ

Also, the actual tables I'm using are large, for example, this one has 
206 rows and rowspan attributes ranging from 2-14 scattered in all 8 
columns, so the shifted rows in t1 are not very useful right now.

t1 <- readHTMLTable( 
"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3544749/table/T1", which=1)

Thanks,
Chris












t1<-readHTMLTable( 
"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3544749/table/T1", which=1)


-- 

Chris Stubben

Los Alamos National Lab
Bioscience Division
MS M888
Los Alamos, NM 87545