[R] read.xls without row number, column numbers, or factors

[@stey@ m@iii@g oii m@th@m@ps@com]

Is there a way to use read.xls to copy a portion of a single row of an  
XLS spreadsheet to a list, without getting assigning row and column  
numbers, and, if the data consists of strings, without assigning levels?

Or alternatively, to take the single-row data frame generated by  
read.xls and convert it to a list, without row numbers, column  
numbers, or levels.

Right now I'm using version 3.2.3, on Linux Mint 18.  Can certainly  
upgrade if this would be desirable.


thanks for any assistance

George H