Importing Data Into R

1. Best practices in preparing data files for importing into R

Read more: Best practices in preparing data files for importing into R

2. Reading data from txt|csv files: R base functions

• R base functions for importing data: read.table(), read.delim(), read.csv(), read.csv2()
• Reading a local file
• Reading a file from internet

# Read tab separated values
read.delim(file.choose())

# Read comma (",") separated values
read.csv(file.choose())

# Read semicolon (";") separated values
read.csv2(file.choose())

Read more: Reading data from txt|csv files: R base functions

3. Fast Reading of Data From txt|csv Files into R: readr package

• Functions for reading txt|csv files: read_delim(), read_tsv(), read_csv(), read_csv2()
• Reading a file
  • Reading a local file
  • Reading a file from internet
  • In the case of parsing problems
• Specify column types
• Reading lines from a file: read_lines()
• Read whole file: read_file()

library("readr")

# Read tab separated values
read_tsv(file.choose())

# Read comma (",") separated values
read_csv(file.choose())

# Read semicolon (";") separated values
read_csv2(file.choose())

Read more: Fast Reading of Data From txt|csv Files into R: readr package

4. Reading data From Excel Files (xls|xlsx) into R

• Copying data from Excel and import into R
• Importing Excel files into R using readxl package
• Importing Excel files using xlsx package

# Use readxl package to read xls|xlsx
library("readxl")
my_data <- read_excel("my_file.xlsx")

# Use xlsx package
library("xlsx")
my_data <- read.xlsx("my_file.xlsx") 

Read more: Reading data From Excel Files (xls|xlsx) into R