lines = 'WK 2.43 RA 0.81 MN 1.83 RM 0.70 SA 2.43 FM 0.74 ZK 2.70 KA 0.36 JH 1.88 HM 0.75 JG 1.96 SM 0.56 GK 1.53 RM 0.65 AS 2.08 GE 0.87 TE 1.85 BW 0.40 LF 2.44 NE 0.31' con = textConnection( lines ) DF = read.table( con, header=FALSE ) close(con) colnames(DF) = c('Patient_N', 'Heat_Output_N', 'Patient_R', 'Heat_Output_R') normal = DF$Heat_Output_N raynauds = DF$Heat_Output_R