R-studio is reading my excel data wrong, how do I fix this?

Hello, I have a problem with exporting an excel file into R-studio. I am quite new to R-studio, and are trying to make a data set separated by depths (dyp) and dates. Right now R-studio is reading the depths as values (see the picture). How do I make R understand that I am trying to separate the values by the depths?

Screenshot 2023-10-24 at 09.47.13

Hi, welcome to the forum. Can you give us the code that you are using to read in the Excel file. Just copy it and paste it here between
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Usually screen shots are of little use but could you give us a screenshot of the top of your Excel file. I think it is likely the layout is confusing R and we may be able to tell from the screenshot.

Thanks

For general information have a look at FAQ Asking Questions](FAQ: How to do a minimal reproducible example ( reprex ) for beginners)

Hi! Thanks for your reply! I am using the import dataset function under file, and therefore no code to read in the excel file. Here is a screenshot of how my excel file looks.
Screenshot 2023-10-25 at 08.32.18

R is reading your file correctly, what's the issue? Do you want the upper row not as column names?

I want R studio to understand that the different values belong to different depths. I kind of want row names and column names (the dates and the depths). Now R studio is reading the depths as values.

My end goal is to make a heat map showing the change over time for the different depths. I am very new to R-studio, and I feel like this problem actually has a simple solution, but I am completely stuck:)

HI! After you choose import dataset and after import excel data, apper a windows and it is possible to look how is the table before to import it inside R. It is possible to have a picture about this window?

As @ DBScan says, R is reading the file correctly. What R is doing is assuming that Row 1 of the Excel file consists of the names of the columns of your data.

Oh, wait a minute. If you want the Dyp column to be names rather than numbers we can just change it to character values.

If we call your dataset "mydata" try

mydata$Dyp  <- as.character(mydata$Dyp)

It is not a good idea in R to have column names that are look all numeric. It is probably better to have the first row of your Excel file look something like

 Depths   D24.05  D7.06 

I hope I have understood the problem.

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Perhaps you should read the discussion above.

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