You can read/import data files into R that are produced by different software such as MS Excel, Minitab, SPSS, SAS, and STATA.
Import Data Files into R Language
In R language different data file formats can be read or imported easily. Let us start learning about how to import Data Files into R Language such as Excel, SPSS, STATA, SAS, Minitab, etc format.
Reading Excel Files in R
The XLConnect
package can be used to import data files into R produced in MS Excel. First, you have to install this package.
install.packages("XLConnect")
You can check if the package is already installed using the code:
any(grepl("XLConnect", installed.packages()))
If the package is installed, you need to activate the package in your workspace (using library( )
function) to load data from MS Excel files.
Suppose, you have a data file (Hald.xlsx) stored at the path "D:\STAT\STA-654\Hald.xlsx"
. To read this file the readWorksheetFromFile( )
function can be used. For example,
library(XLConnect) data <- readWorksheetFromFile("D:/stat/sta-654/Hald.xlsx", sheet=1)
Since an Excel workbook can contain more than one sheet, therefore, you need to specify the sheet argument and specify which sheet you want to load into R. In this example, data from sheet 1 will be loaded.
If you want to load the whole workbook (all sheets) use the loadWorkbook( )
function to load the required worksheet as a data file frame. For example,
wb <- loadWorkbook("D:/stat/sta-654/Hald.xlsx") df <- readWorksheet(wb, sheet = 1)
The readxl
package can also be used to read MS Excel files more easily.
library(readxl) df <- read_excel("Data file with path")
Note that the MS Excel files with extension: *.xls
, or *.xlsx can be specified. The sheet argument can also be added, just like with the XLSconnect
package.
Read SPSS Data Files
To read the SPSS files install foreign
package. After loading the foreign
package, the read.spss( )
function can be used to load an SPSS data file in R. For example,
library(foreign) mydata <- read.spss ("SPSS data file with path", to.data.frame = TRUE)
The argument to.data.frame is set to TRUE
so that the data is displayed in a data frame format. Since the SPSS data file contains value labels, and if you do not want the variables with value labels to be converted into R factors with corresponding levels, setuse.value.labels = FALSE
. For example,
library(foreign) mydata <- read.spss("SPSS data file with path", to.data.frame = TRUE, use.value.labels = FALSE)
Reading STATA Data Files
To import Stata files the read.dta( )
function from the foreign
package can be used. For example,
library(foreign) mydata <- read.dta("STATA file with path")
Reading SAS Data Files
The read.sas7bdat( )
function from sas7bdat
package can be used to read SAS data files into R.
library(sas7bdat) mydata <- read.sas7bdat("SAS data file with path")
Reading Minitab Data File
Minitab data files can be imported in R using read.mtp( )
function from foreign
package.
library(foreign) mydata <- read.mtp("Minitab data file with path")
Reading RDA or RData Files
The R data files RDA and RData files can be easily read using load( )
function.
load("filename.RDA")