Getting data from text file (separated by spaces) using variable lengths into R

Question

I have a text file similar to this (separated by spaces):

x <- "DF12 This is an example 1 This
DF12 This is an 1232 This is
DF14 This is 12334 This is an
DF15 This 23 This is an example
"

and I know the field lengths of each variable (there is 5 variables in this data set), which are:

varlength <- c(2, 2, 18, 5, 18)

How can I import this kind of data into R, using the varlength variable as an field separator indicator?

Answer 1

Per Barry Rowlingson on r-help (where you seem to have cross-posted):

?read.fwf

Read Fixed Width Format Files

Description:

 Read a table of *f*ixed *w*idth *f*ormatted data into a
 'data.frame'.

Usage:

 read.fwf(file, widths, header = FALSE, sep = "\t",
          skip = 0, row.names, col.names, n = -1,
          buffersize = 2000, ...)