\HeaderA{read.series}{Read series of image files}{read.series}
\keyword{file}{read.series}
\begin{Description}\relax
Read in a series of array image analysis output files as data frames.
\end{Description}
\begin{Usage}
\begin{verbatim}
read.series(slides, path=NULL, suffix="spot", ...)
\end{verbatim}
\end{Usage}
\begin{Arguments}
\begin{ldescription}
\item[\code{slides}] character vector giving the names of files to be read in. Any suffix such as ".spot" or ".gpr" which is common to all the files can be omitted.
\item[\code{path}] character string giving the directory containing the files. Can be omitted if the files are in the current working directory.
\item[\code{suffix}] character string giving a suffix such as "spot" or "gpr" to be added to each file. If \code{NULL} then no suffix is added.
\item[\code{...}] any other arguments to be passed to \code{read.table}
\end{ldescription}
\end{Arguments}
\begin{Details}\relax
This function performs a series of calls to \code{read.table}.
The image analysis output files are assumed to have been edited to remove all pre-heading material.
The files are assumed to contain only column names and data.
In most cases only can use \code{read.maimages} instead.

The data.frames produced by this command will typically be processed further using one of the functions \code{rg.spot}, \code{rg.genepix} or \code{rg.quantarray}.
\end{Details}
\begin{Value}
No value is returned.
However a series of data.frames are created on the current environment with names of the form filename.suffix.
The files names are given by the elements of \code{slides} and the suffix is given by \code{suffix}.
\end{Value}
\begin{Author}\relax
Gordon Smyth
\end{Author}
\begin{SeeAlso}\relax
\code{\LinkA{read.table}{read.table}}.

An overview of LIMMA functions for reading data is given in \LinkA{03.ReadingData}{03.ReadingData}.
\end{SeeAlso}