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Course

Introduction to Importing Data in R

Beginner

4.1+

Updated 03/2025

In this course, you will learn to read CSV, XLS, and text files in R using tools like readxl and data.table.

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RData Preparation3 hours10 videos37 Exercises3,150 XP197,309Statement of Accomplishment

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Course Description

Importing data into R should be the easiest step in your analysis. Unfortunately, that is almost never the case. Data can come in many formats, ranging from .csv and text files, to statistical software files, to databases and HTML data. Knowing which approach to use is key to getting started with the actual analysis. In this course, you’ll start by learning how to read .csv and text files in R. You will then cover the readr and data.table packages to easily and efficiently import flat file data. After that, you will learn how to read .xls files in R using readxl.

Prerequisites

Introduction to R

1

Importing data from flat files with utils

Introduction & read.csv

Reading from a path

read.delim & read.table

Assigning column names

Column classes

Final Thoughts

2

readr & data.table

readr: read_csv & read_tsv

readr: read_delim

skip and n_max

col_types with collectors

data.table: fread

fread: more advanced use

Dedicated classes

3

Importing Excel data

List the sheets of an Excel file

Import an Excel sheet

Reading a workbook

The col_names argument

The skip argument

4

Reproducible Excel work with XLConnect

Reading sheets

Connect to a workbook

List and read Excel sheets

Customize readWorksheet

Adapting sheets

Add worksheet

Populate worksheet

Renaming sheets

Removing sheets

Introduction to Importing Data in R

Course
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*4.1

from 26 reviews

62%

15%

12%

4%

8%

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Most recent
Top reviews

Daniel N.

4 months

Importing data was interesting

Zilong M.

11 months

It is good!

VAMSI P.

over 1 year

Detail and Imressive

Li D.

over 1 year

Review content required

James K.

almost 2 years

Very comprehensive

"Importing data was interesting"

Daniel N.

"It is good!"

Zilong M.

"Detail and Imressive"

VAMSI P.

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