readmulti.nts: Read landmark data from multiple nts files
Description
Read a list of names for several *.nts files to obtain
landmark coordinates for a set of specimens
Usage
readmulti.nts(filelist)
Arguments
filelist
A list of names for the *.nts files to be
read by the function. The names in the list require
quotes (") and .nts/.NTS suffix.
Value
Function returns a (p x k x n) array, where p is the number
of landmark points, k is the number of landmark dimensions
(2 or 3), and n is the number of specimens. The third
dimension of this array contains names for each specimen,
which are obtained from the original file names.
Details
This function reads a list containing the names of multiple
*.nts files, where each contains the landmark coordinates
for a single specimen. For these files, the number of
variables (columns) of the data matrix will equal the
number of dimensions of the landmark data (k=2 or 3). When
the function is called a dialog box is opened, from which
the user may select multiple *.nts files. These are then
read and concatenated into a single matrix for all
specimens. The parameter line contains 5 or 6 elements, and
must begin with a "1" to designate a rectangular matrix.
The second and third values designate how many specimens
(n) and how many total variables (p x k) are in the data
matrix. The fourth value is a "0" if the data matrix is
complete and a "1" if there are missing values. If missing
values are present, the '1' is followed by the arbitrary
numeric code used to represent missing values (e.g., -999).
These values will be replaced with "NA" in the output
array. Subsequent analyses requires a full complement of
data, see estimate.missing.