How to Import CSV Files into R

There are three different methods available to import CSV file in R.

The following methods show how you can do it with syntax.

Method 1: Use read.csv() Function

data <- read.csv("path_of_file",header=TRUE)

Method 2: Use read_csv() from readr Package

library(readr)

data <- read_csv("path_of_file")

Method 3: Use fread from data.table Package

library(data.table)

data <- fread("path_of_file")

Let’s see example for each method how we can achieve importing CSV in R.

Import CSV file Using read.csv in R

You can use read.csv function to import CSV also you can set header as TRUE or FALSE

# Import CSV file
data <- read.csv("R studio\\product.csv",header=TRUE)

# Display imported data
print(data)

Output:

Product Count
1 Cylinder    12
2   Sensor     6
3  Display     2
4  Monitor     1

The output shows data read from product.csv file.

We can use read.csv() function when you have smaller files.

Import CSV File Using read_csv in R

When you are working on large files you can use read_csv() function from readr package:

# Install package
install.packages("readr")

# Import library
library(readr)

# Import CSV file
data <- read_csv("R studio\\product.csv")

# Display imported data
print(data)

Output:

 Product  Count
  <chr>    <dbl>
1 Cylinder    12
2 Sensor       6
3 Display      2
4 Monitor      1

The output shows data from CSV file which read using read_csv function.

Import CSV File Using fread() in R

For extremely large files you can use fread() function from data.table package:

# Install package
install.packages("data.table")

# Import library
library(data.table)

# Import CSV file
data <- fread("R studio\\product.csv")

# Display imported data
print(data)

Output:

 Product Count
1: Cylinder    12
2:   Sensor     6
3:  Display     2
4:  Monitor     1

Here the output shows data from product.csv file which read using fread function.

While providing file path you need to use double backslashes (\) to avoid error.