Importing .csv and .txt files in R Script can be achieved in many ways.
First, let’s consider a data-set which we can use for the demonstration. For this demonstration, we will use two examples of a single dataset, one in .csv form and another .txt
Reading a Comma-Separated Value(CSV) File
Method 1: Using read.csv()
Function
The function has two parameters:
- file.choose():
It opens a menu to choose a csv file from the desktop. - header:
It is to indicate whether the first row of the dataset is a variable name or not. Apply T/True if the variable name is present else put F/False.
Example:
# import and store the dataset in data1 data1 < - read.csv( file .choose(), header = T) # display the data data1 |
Output:
Method 2: Using read.table()
Function
This function specifies how the dataset is separated, in this case we take sep=”, “ as argument.
Example:
# import and store the dataset in data2 data2 < - read.table( file .choose(), header = T, sep = ", " ) # display data data2 |
Output:
Reading a Tab-Delimited(txt) File
Method 1: Using read.delim()
Function
The function has two parameters:
- file.choose():
It opens a menu to choose a csv file from the desktop. - header:
It is to indicate whether the first row of the dataset is a variable name or not. Apply T/True if the variable name is present else put F/False.
Example:
# import and store the dataset in data3 data3 < - read.delim( file .choose(), header = T) # display the data data3 |
Output:
Method 2: Using read.table()
Function
This function specifies how the dataset is separated, in this case we take sep=”\t” as argument.
Example:
# import and store the dataset in data4 data4 < - read.table( file .choose(), header = T, sep = "\t" ) # display the data data4 |
Output:
Using R-Studio
Steps:
- From the Environment Tab click on the Import Dataset Menu
- Select the file extension from the option
- In the third step, a pop-up box will appear, either enter the file name or browse the desktop.
- The selected file will be displayed on a new window with its dimensions.
- In order to see the output on the console, type the filename.
Example:
# display the dataset
dataset
chevron_rightfilter_noneOutput:
- In order to load the data onto the console for use, we use the attach command.
Example:
# To load the data for use
attach(dataset)
chevron_rightfilter_none - In order to load the data onto the console for use, we use the attach command.