title: R write.table: invalid 'col.names' specification
body: <p>How do I avoid the <code>invalid 'col.names' specification</code> error when using <code>write.table</code> on input that has plenty of <code>\t</code> symbols in it?  Sample code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt; x &lt;- c("1\t119\t120\t1\t119\t120\tABC\tDEF\t0", "2\t558\t559\t2\t558\t559\tGHI\tJKL\t0", "3\t139\t141\t3\t139\t141\tMNO\tPQR\t0", "3\t139\t143\t3\t139\t143\tSTU\tVWX\t0")
  &gt; x
  [1] "1\t119\t120\t1\t119\t120\tABC\tDEF\t0"
  [2] "2\t558\t559\t2\t558\t559\tGHI\tJKL\t0"
  [3] "3\t139\t141\t3\t139\t141\tMNO\tPQR\t0"
  [4] "3\t139\t143\t3\t139\t143\tSTU\tVWX\t0"
  
  &gt; write.table(x, file = "file.txt", row.names = FALSE, col.names = c("A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I"))
  Error in write.table(x, file = "uuu.txt", row.names = FALSE, col.names = c("A",  : 
    invalid 'col.names' specification
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The following command does produce an output table, but still retains double quotes on both sides:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt; write.table(x, file = "uuu.txt", row.names = FALSE, col.names = FALSE)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Output:</p>
  
  <pre><code>"1  119 120 1   119 120 ABC DEF 0"
  "2  558 559 2   558 559 GHI JKL 0"
  "3  139 141 3   139 141 MNO PQR 0"
  "3  139 143 3   139 143 STU VWX 0"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Instead, I would like to see:</p>
  
  <pre><code>A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I
  1   119 120 1   119 120 ABC DEF 0
  2   558 559 2   558 559 GHI JKL 0
  3   139 141 3   139 141 MNO PQR 0
  3   139 143 3   139 143 STU VWX 0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've tried some combinations of <code>strsplit(x, split = "\t")</code> to preprocess the input before invoking <code>write.table</code>, but ran into the same error: <code>invalid 'col.names' specification</code>.  </p>