Importing Data in R Script

Difficulty Level : Basic
Last Updated : 19 Jun, 2020

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
Output:
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)