Syntax to load excel csv file into RStudio console? newbie here

Hello - I have a csv file named Cyclistic - July 2022 which I've attempted to import a spreadsheet from my computer using the read_csv command (I also tried using lower case (cyclistic_july_2022)). Additionally, I tried my xlsx file using the read_excel command. What's the syntax for importing my spreadsheets?

Since you don't show any code or error messages, I will have to guess at possible solutions. The read_csv() function is part of the readr package. Be sure you have loaded the package.
You have to include the file extension in the file name used in read_csv().
You can check the file name by running the command

list.files(pattern = "csv$")

That will show all the files whose name ends with csv. Use the file name listed there in the read_csv() function.
The final command should look something like

library(readr)
DF <- read_csv("Cyclistic - July 2022.csv")

which will load the content of the csv file into a tibble (a data frame with some adjusted features) named DF.

Thank you for your reply!

I am still unable to import my spreadsheets even though I have followed the instructions you sent. Also, my list command input is not yielding my csv saved spreadsheets. Here are the code and error messages just now:

Restarting R session...

install.packages("readr")
Installing package into ‘/cloud/lib/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.3’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
trying URL 'http://rspm/default/__linux__/focal/latest/src/contrib/readr_2.1.4.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 882670 bytes (861 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 861 KB

  • installing binary package ‘readr’ ...
  • DONE (readr)

The downloaded source packages are in
‘/tmp/RtmpEtthGo/downloaded_packages’

library(readr)
list.files (pattern = "csv")
character(0)
list.files (pattern = csv)
Error: object 'csv' not found
install.packages(read_csv())
Error in install.packages : argument "file" is missing, with no default
library(readr)
DF <- read_csv("cyclistic_july.csv")
Error: 'cyclistic_july.csv' does not exist in current working directory ('/cloud/project').

Hi, welcome to the forum.
To add to FJCC's comments, make sure you are in the correct directory.
The comamand

getwd()

will show you your working directory. If the fire is not there you need to move it to that directory or provide a complete directory path that should look something like

"~/RJunk/hitwage.csv" # Linux
"C:/Rjunk/hitwage.csv" #Windows

R is case sensitive so you want to use Cyclistic - July 2022
However if it is a .csv file it probably is "Cyclistic - July 2022.csv" and the Excel file wil be "Cyclistic - July 2022.xlsx"

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Thanks but I don't understand. When I go to community.rstudio.com and click on my profile circle in the upper-right corner to open my messages, it looks like I can just hit the 'reply' button. When I attempted to type getwd() in this reply box, nothing happened. Is that a command I need to use on my R Studio console (posit cloud)? Also, the reason I typed my file in lower-case is because I had just renamed the file that way. Thanks again and hopefully this message will find its way to you.

getwd() is an R command so yes you need to type it in RStudio,

Hmm, let me get this straight - I use community.rstudio.com domain to access and create topics, but reply using the RStudio (posit.cloud) domain?

I'll try to clarify the requests made by @jrkrideau and me with the caveat that I have never used Posit Cloud, so there may be details about that that I miss.
The functions list.files() and read_csv() default to looking in your working directory. You can see what your working directory is by running the command getwd() in RStudio. When I run it while answering questions on this forum, I get

getwd()
[1] "C:/Users/fjcc/Documents/R/Play"

If I run list.files(pattern = "csv$"), the list.files() function looks in the folder C:/Users/fjcc/Documents/R/Play for any files whose name ends with csv. When you run list.files (pattern = "csv"), you get no file names returned, so there are no files whose name contains csv in your working directory. If you run getwd() in RStudio, you will see which folder list_files() and read_csv() are looking in. Your csv file is apparently in some other folder. You need to determine which folder that is and modify your commands to look in that folder. If the csv file is in a sub folder of your working directory, you can prefix the sub folder name to the file name. For example, if I want to load the file CarData.csv from the DataFiles sub folder of my working directory (C:/Users/fjcc/Documents/R/Play), I can run

DF <- read_csv("DataFiles/CarData.csv")

I could also use

DF <- read_csv("C:/Users/fjcc/Documents/R/Play/DataFiles/CarData.csv")

You can always use the full file path, as in that last example. It just takes more typing.
So, determine which folder your data file is in and pass the correct path to read_csv(). If you get stuck, please explain where the data file is, what your working directory is (from the output of getwd()) , and what command you ran. All of the above code should be run in RStudio and not on this website.

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Just to confirm, but did you upload the files from your computer to Posit Cloud? If not, R running in Posit Cloud will not be able to find them. Click on the Files tab in the lower right pane in RStudio, then click on the the Upload tab. Click on the Choose File button and navigate to the csv or Excel file on your computer. Select the file and click on Open and then OK. Go back to the Files tab and verify that the file has been uploaded.

1 Like

Thanks for your reply. I got stuck. I followed your advise using the full path (which I obtained by right-clicking the file, clicking properties, then copy/paste the full path inside the parentheses and quote marks, plus the file ext - read.csv("C:/Users/Lenovo/Documents/cyclistic_july_2022.csv"). On my computer, that file isn't under a folder, and I thought that would simplify the command on R Studio but still gave me error messages. Previously, I typed full paths using the file that was inside a folder which was itself inside a folder. Anyway, when I typed getwd() the result was "/cloud/project". Two notes: R Studio's name has recently changed to Posit so when you go to google and search R Studio, it directs the user to Posit Cloud. Same thing apparently, I believe. Secondly, I of course type all code in the RSTudio Posit (whatever) console, never this RStudio community website.

@EconProf explained in a post on this thread how to upload a file to Posit Cloud. Please use that to get your file to a location where the cloud instance of R can find it.

Thanks John and EconProf - I solved the logjam of why I wasn't able to import my spreadsheets to R Studio. I really am a newbie because I didn't have any way of knowing how to import even though I thought I did. I've since imported the spreadsheets to R Studio and am now taking baby-steps in data cleaning.

i am facing the exact same issue. can @AT50Plus guide me what he did to finally import all the 12 files on cloud?

This should work for you.

Thanks but you know one has to upload 12 files for this analysis. And my R studio crashed multiple times and I was unable to merge those 12 data frames into 1. Throughout the course I was told that R is super useful while working with large datasets but why it is not able to merge only 12 datasets? How did you overcome that? @AT50Plus

@AT50Plus issues were limited to uploading files to posit cloud, merging data was not raised in this context. If you have an issue with mergine, feel free to start a new thread. Be sure to provide sufficient background info so that you are able to be supported.

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Sorry for the delayed reply. If you are still facing that importing issue, here goes: In the lower-right pane, click on the UPLOAD tab and then click BROWSE to select the (12) files to bring to R Studio/Posit space. Once you've uploaded them, you can use the read_csv() or read_excel() function. Once you've done that with each file, you will see them listed in the upper-left pane (Environment). csv is the recommended format to bring over to R Studio, rather than xlsx. For a lot of files all at once, you can use 'control-C' to select all 12 files in your computer's documents area, then right-click, and click on Add To Archive, then select Zip (your computer's path to zipping files might be different). Then, when you upload to R Studio, it's just one step and once the upload is done the files automatically expand again. Hope this helps.

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