Working with Excel Files in R Programming

Excel files are of extension .xls, .xlsx and .csv(comma-separated values). To start working with excel files in R Programming Language, we need to first import excel files in RStudio or any other R supporting IDE(Integrated development environment).

Reading Excel Files in R Programming Language

First, install readxl package in R to load excel files. Various methods including their subparts are demonstrated further.

Sample_data1.xlsx:

Sample_data2.xlsx:

Reading Files:

The two excel files Sample_data1.xlsx and Sample_data2.xlsx and read from the working directory.

R

# Working with Excel Files
# Installing required package
install.packages("readxl")

# Loading the package
library(readxl)

# Importing excel file
Data1 < - read_excel("Sample_data1.xlsx")
Data2 < - read_excel("Sample_data2.xlsx")

# Printing the data
head(Data1)
head(Data2)

The excel files are loaded into variables Data_1 and Data_2 as a dataframes and then variable Data_1 and Data_2 is called that prints the dataset.

Modifying Files

The Sample_data1.xlsx file and Sample_file2.xlsx are modified.

R

# Modifying the files
Data1$Pclass <- 0

Data2$Embarked <- "S"

# Printing the data
head(Data1)
head(Data2)

The value of the P-class attribute or variable of Data1 data is modified to 0. The value of Embarked attribute or variable of Data2 is modified to S.

Deleting Content from files

The variable or attribute is deleted from Data1 and Data2 datasets containing Sample_data1.xlsx and Sample_data2.xlsx files.

R

# Deleting from files
Data1 <- Data1[-2]

Data2 <- Data2[-3]

# Printing the data
Data1
Data2

The – sign is used to delete columns or attributes from the dataset. Column 2 is deleted from the Data1 dataset and Column 3 is deleted from the Data2 dataset.

Merging Files

The two excel datasets Data1 and Data2 are merged using merge() function which is in base package and comes pre-installed in R.

R

# Merging Files
Data3 <- merge(Data1, Data2, all.x = TRUE, all.y = TRUE)

# Displaying the data
head(Data3)

Data1 and Data2 are merged with each other and the resultant file is stored in the Data3 variable.

Creating new columns

New columns or features can be easily created in Data1 and Data2 datasets.

R

# Creating feature in Data1 dataset
Data1$Num < - 0

# Creating feature in Data2 dataset
Data2$Code < - "Mission"

# Printing the data
head(Data1)
head(Data2)

Num is a new feature that is created with 0 default value in Data1 dataset. Code is a new feature that is created with the mission as a default string in Data2 dataset.

Writing Files

After performing all operations, Data1 and Data2 are written into new files using write.xlsx() function built in writexl package.

R

# Installing the package
install.packages("writexl")

# Loading package
library(writexl)

# Writing Data1
write_xlsx(Data1, "New_Data1.xlsx")

# Writing Data2
write_xlsx(Data2, "New_Data2.xlsx")

The Data1 dataset is written New_Data1.xlsx file and Data2 dataset is written in New_Data2.xlsx file. Both the files are saved in the present working directory.