Iteratively read a fixed number of lines into R - json

Question

I have a josn file I'm working with that contains multiple json objects in a single file. R is unable to read the file as a whole. But since each object occurs at regular intervals, I would like to iteratively read a fixed number of lines into R.
There are a number of SO questions on reading single lines into R but I have been unable to extend these solutions to a fixed number of lines. For my problem I need to read 16 lines into R at a time (eg 1-16, 17-32 etc)
I have tried using a loop but can't seem to get the syntax right:
## File
file <- "results.json"
## Create connection
con <- file(description=file, open="r")
## Loop over a file connection
for(i in 1:1000) {
tmp <- scan(file=con, nlines=16, quiet=TRUE)
data[i] <- fromJSON(tmp)
}
The file contains over 1000 objects of this form:
{
"object": [
[
"a",
0
],
[
"b",
2
],
[
"c",
2
]
]
}

Answer 1

With #tomtom inspiration I was able to find a solution.
## File
file <- "results.json"
## Loop over a file
for(i in 1:1000) {
tmp <- paste(scan(file=file, what="character", sep="\n", nlines=16, skip=(i-1)*16, quiet=TRUE),collapse=" ")
assign(x = paste("data", i, sep = "_"), value = fromJSON(tmp))
}
I couldn't create a connection as each time I tried the connection would close before the file had been completely read. So I got rid of that step.
I had to include the what="character" variable as scan() seems to expect a number by default.
I included sep="\n", paste() and collapse=" " to create a single string rather than the vector of characters that scan() creates by default.
Finally I just changed the final assignment operator to have a bit more control over the names of the output.

Answer 2

This might help:
EDITED to make it use a list and Reduce into one file
## Loop over a file connection
data <- NULL
for(i in 1:1000) {
tmp <- scan(file=con, nlines=16, skip=(i-1)*16, quiet=TRUE)
data[[i]] <- fromJSON(tmp)
}
df <- Reduce(function(x, y) {paste(x, y, collapse = " ")})
You would have to make sure that you don't reach further than the end of the file though ;-)