You can prevent the identifiers from being converted by using the
excel file import wizard, changing
gene name columns from general format to text.
You could also try this:
#from CRAN
library(xlsx)
wb <- createWorkbook()
sheet <- createSheet(wb, sheetName="CellBlock")
datframe <- data.frame(cbind(1:3, c("March1", "Sept1", "Hbb")))
addDataFrame(datframe, sheet, col.names=F, row.names=F,
startRow=1, startColumn=1, colStyle=NULL, colnamesStyle=NULL,
rownamesStyle=NULL, showNA=FALSE, characterNA="", byrow=FALSE)
saveWorkbook(wb, "junk.xlsx")
The output format for all cells seems to be a string with gene symbols
intact. It should be
possible to set column formats to text, but I couldn't get it to work.
Vince
=====================================================
Thank you - Tim and Steve.
The link looks interesting.
Correcting at one's end doesn't end the problem being Excel a widely
used
spreadsheet program - because 'people will turn around and send it
back to
you" again (as Tim rightly points out). Further, it also seems that
it is
impossible to effectively disable this feature in Excel (i.e.,
disabling
this specific autocorrection in Excel).
Cheers,
Chintanu
=====================================================
On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 5:11 AM, Tim Triche, Jr. <tim.triche at="" gmail.com="">wrote:
> Be surprised :-)
>
>
http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/HGNChelper/index.html
>
> The trouble with anything readable by Excel is that people will
turn
> around and send it back to you. Including vendors
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 8:50 PM, Steve Lianoglou <
> mailinglist.honeypot at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 11:22 PM, Chintanu <chintanu at="" gmail.com="">
wrote:
>> > Hello all,
>> >
>> > Wondering whether there already a tried and tested solution in R
to deal
>> > with the issue of mistaken identifiers [Zeeberg et al. (2004)
Mistaken
>> > Identifiers: Gene name errors can be introduced inadvertently
when using
>> > Excel in bioinformatics; BMC Bioinformatics]. After analysing
data, I
>> often
>> > do write.csv () and the output file is then shared to be often
looked at
>> > using MS Excel.
>>
>> I'd be surprised if you'll find a better solution than just
informing
>> people downstream to turn off the auto-correct feature.
>>
>> Perhaps putting together small tutorials for different
>> platforms/versions that step people through the process of
disabling
>> this "feature" would be handy -- and perhaps it might be handier
to
>> put on a wiki some where for the better good of humanity.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Steve Lianoglou
>> Graduate Student: Computational Systems Biology
>> | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
>> | Weill Medical College of Cornell University
>> Contact Info:
http://cbio.mskcc.org/~lianos/contact
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Bioconductor mailing list
>> Bioconductor at r-project.org
>>
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/bioconductor
>> Search the archives:
>>
http://news.gmane.org/gmane.science.biology.informatics.conductor
>>
>
>
>
> --
> *A model is a lie that helps you see the truth.*
> *
> *
> Howard
Skipper<http: cancerres.aacrjournals.org="" content="" 31="" 9="" 1173.full.pdf="">
>
>
[[alternative HTML version deleted]]