R Code to Perform Data Import and Export with CSV

In this article, I’ll explain you the R code that demonstrates the process of importing and exporting data using CSV files.

In the import section, the script utilizes the readr library’s read_csv() function to efficiently import data from a CSV file into a data frame. Subsequently, in the export section, it employs the write.csv() function to export a sample data frame to a CSV file.

These processes enable seamless data transfer between R and external sources, facilitating data analysis and manipulation tasks.

Data Import

Let’s see an example R script that demonstrates how to import data from a CSV file.

# Load the necessary library for reading CSV files
library(readr)

# Set the file path of the CSV file
file_path <- "path/to/your/file.csv"

# Import the CSV file into a data frame
data <- read_csv(file_path)

# Print the first few rows of the data frame to verify the import
print(head(data))

Now I will explain you how the above code works.

We start by loading the readr library, which provides functions for reading data files.
Then, we specify the file path of the CSV file that we want to import.
Next, we use the read_csv() function to import the CSV file into a data frame. This function is from the readr package and automatically detects the column types.
We print the first few rows of the data frame using the head() function to verify that the data was imported correctly.

Note:

You’ll need to replace “path/to/your/file.csv” with the actual file path of your CSV file.

Data Export

Now I’ll show you the example R code that demonstrates how to export data to a CSV file.

# Create some sample data
data <- data.frame(
  ID = c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5),
  Name = c("John", "Emma", "Michael", "Sophia", "William"),
  Age = c(25, 30, 35, 40, 45)
)

# Set the file path for the exported CSV file
file_path <- "path/to/your/exported_file.csv"

# Export the data frame to a CSV file
write.csv(data, file = file_path, row.names = FALSE)

# Print a message to confirm the export
cat("Data exported to", file_path, "\n")

Let’s see the step-by-step explanation of the export code.

First create a sample data frame called data.
Now specify the file path where we want to export the data. Replace “path/to/your/exported_file.csv” with the desired file path.
Then, use the write.csv() function to export the data data frame to a CSV file. We set row.names = FALSE to exclude row names from being exported.
Last, print a message to confirm that the export was successful.

After running this code, you should find a CSV file named exported_file.csv at the specified file path, containing the data from the data data frame.

Importing or exporting data with CSV file is simple with it comes to R programming. The size of CSV files that the above code can handle depends on various factors such as the available memory in your system, the capacity of your hard drive, and the efficiency of the R environment you set up.

However, R is generally capable of handling reasonably large CSV files. Note that the code I provided uses the read_csv() and write.csv() functions, which are memory-efficient and suitable for handling large datasets also.