Using R to choose files from excel - r

I've been trying to import excel files into R....using the choose file function
mydata=read.csv(file.choose())
or
myFile <- file.choose()
myData <- read.table(myFile,header=TRUE)
but I get the same error
Error in file.choose() : file choice cancelled
I'm using R version 2.15.3
How do I fix this? Or is there another way to do this?

I can get the error you indicate
Error in file.choose() : file choice cancelled
only by hitting Cancel on the file dialog box. If I select a file and hit Open, it works as intended (R-3.0.1).
Also, "Excel file" is not well defined. Do you mean a .csv file saved from Excel? An .xls file? An .xlsx file? Each of these is a different format and needs a different function to read/import them.

Related

Getting embedded nul string while reading an excel csv

I'm trying to open an Excel CSV file within R Studio but I get this error:
Error Is this a valid CSV file? embedded nul in the string: 'C\0a\0m\0p\0a\0g\0n\0e\0_\0N\0o\0C\0a\0r\0a\0v\0a\0g\0g\0i\0o\0_\0C\0o\0s\0t\0o\0>\00'
the file is generated automatically by the Google Ads platform as Excel csv and it works normally with Excel but in order to open it on R Studio I have to convert it as .xlsx
is there a way to bypass this or to convert the file without opening it?
otherwise the script which is based upon this file needs a manual passage to convert the source file
What function are you using to open it? Check your file and see if you have other commas within a column value; this may confuse the function. Also, it is worth trying to use the "Import dataset" option in the environment window within Rstudio. Try to use the readr option and adjust your import options until you have it correct. Check the package RAdwords maybe you can extract your Google Ads information without the CSV exporting step.

Confusion while uploading the csv file in R [duplicate]

I have an excel file that I want to open in R. I tried both of these commands after saving the excel file as a csv file or a text file.
read.table() or read.csv()
I think part of the problem is where the file is located. I have it saved on the desk top. What am I missing here?
Here is the R output
In file(file, "rt") :
cannot open file 'Rtrial.csv': No such file or directory
> help.search("read.csv")
> read.csv("Rtrial.csv")
Error in file(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection
In addition: Warning message:
In file(file, "rt") :
cannot open file 'Rtrial.csv': No such file or directory
> read.table("tab")
To throw out another option, why not set the working directory (preferably via a script) to the desktop using setwd('C:\John\Desktop') and then read the files just using file names
Try
f <- file.choose()
to choose the file interactively and save the name in f.
Then run read.csv on the saved filename
d <- read.csv(f)
Sound like you just have an issue with the path. Include the full path, if you use backslashes they need to be escaped: "C:\\folder\\folder\\Desktop\\file.csv" or "C:/folder/folder/Desktop/file.csv".
myfile = read.csv("C:/folder/folder/Desktop/file.csv") # or read.table()
It may also be wise to avoid spaces and symbols in your file names, though I'm fairly certain spaces are OK.
I had to combine Maiasaura and Svun answers to get it to work: using setwd and escaping all the slashes and spaces.
setwd('C:\\Users\\firstname\ lastname\\Desktop\\folder1\\folder2\\folder3')
data = read.csv("file.csv")
data
This solved the issue for me.
Here is one way to do it. It uses the ability of R to construct file paths based on the platform and hence will work on both Mac OS and Windows. Moreover, you don't need to convert your xls file to csv, as there are many R packages that will help you read xls directly (e.g. gdata package).
# get user's home directory
home = setwd(Sys.getenv("HOME"));
# construct path to file
fpath = file.path(home, "Desktop", "RTrial.xls");
# load gdata library to read xls files
library(gdata);
# read xls file
Rtrial = read.xls(fpath);
Let me know if this works.
Save as in excel will keep the file open and lock it so you can't open it. Close the excel file or you won't be able to use it in R.
Give the full path and escape backslashes read.csv("c:\\users\\JoeUser\\Desktop\\JoesData.csv")
I have experienced that this error occurs when you either move the excel file to the destination other than where your r file is located or when you move your r file to the destination other than where your excel file is located.
Good Practice:
Keep your .r and .csv files in the same directory.
open your .r file from getting into its directory instead of opening the r file from rstuio's open file option.
You also have import Dataset option at Environment Block, just click there and get your required packages installed & from next time use this option to read datasets. You will not get this error again.
I also appreciate the above provided answers.
Another way of reading Excel including the new format xlsx could be the package speedR (https://r-forge.r-project.org/projects/speedr/). It is an interactive and visual data importer. Besides importing you can filter(subset) the existing objects from the R workspace.
My issue was very simple, the working directory was not the "Source" directory that was printed when the file ran. To fix this, you can use getwd() and setwd() to get your relative links working, or just use a full path when opening the csv.
print(getwd()) # Where does the code think it is?
setwd("~/Documents") # Where do I want my code to be?
dat = read.csv("~/Documents/Data Visualization/expDataAnalysis/one/ac1_survey.csv") #just make it work!
MAC OS It happened to me as well. I simply chose from the R toolbar MISC and then chose Change Working Directory. I was able to choose the directory that the .csv file was saved in. When I went back to the command line and typed getwd() the full directory was updated and correct and the read.csv function finally worked.
I had the same problem and when I checked the properties of the file on file explorer, it shows me the next message:
"Security: This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer"
You click on the "Unblock" button and... you can access to the file from R without any problem, just using read.csv() function and from the directory specified as your working directory, even if is not the same as the file’s directory you are accessing to.
I just had this problem and I first switched to another directory and then switched back and the problem was fixed.
this work for me, accesing data from root. use double slash to access address.
dataset = read.csv('C:\\Users\\Desktop\\Machine Learning\\Data.csv')
Kindly check whether the file name has an extension for example:
abc.csv
if so remove the .csv extension.
set wd to the folder containing the file (~)
data<-read.csv("abc.csv")
Your data has been read the data object
In my case this very problem was raised by wrong spelling, lower case 'c:' instead of upper case 'C:' in the path. I corrected spelling and problem vanished.
You can add absolute path to the file
heisenberg <- read.csv(file="C:/Users/tiago/Desktop/sample_100000.csv")
If really want to run something like
heisenberg <- read.csv(file="sample_100000.csv")
then you'll have to change the working directory to match the place the .CSV file is at. More about it here.

No such file or directory in R studio [duplicate]

I have an excel file that I want to open in R. I tried both of these commands after saving the excel file as a csv file or a text file.
read.table() or read.csv()
I think part of the problem is where the file is located. I have it saved on the desk top. What am I missing here?
Here is the R output
In file(file, "rt") :
cannot open file 'Rtrial.csv': No such file or directory
> help.search("read.csv")
> read.csv("Rtrial.csv")
Error in file(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection
In addition: Warning message:
In file(file, "rt") :
cannot open file 'Rtrial.csv': No such file or directory
> read.table("tab")
To throw out another option, why not set the working directory (preferably via a script) to the desktop using setwd('C:\John\Desktop') and then read the files just using file names
Try
f <- file.choose()
to choose the file interactively and save the name in f.
Then run read.csv on the saved filename
d <- read.csv(f)
Sound like you just have an issue with the path. Include the full path, if you use backslashes they need to be escaped: "C:\\folder\\folder\\Desktop\\file.csv" or "C:/folder/folder/Desktop/file.csv".
myfile = read.csv("C:/folder/folder/Desktop/file.csv") # or read.table()
It may also be wise to avoid spaces and symbols in your file names, though I'm fairly certain spaces are OK.
I had to combine Maiasaura and Svun answers to get it to work: using setwd and escaping all the slashes and spaces.
setwd('C:\\Users\\firstname\ lastname\\Desktop\\folder1\\folder2\\folder3')
data = read.csv("file.csv")
data
This solved the issue for me.
Here is one way to do it. It uses the ability of R to construct file paths based on the platform and hence will work on both Mac OS and Windows. Moreover, you don't need to convert your xls file to csv, as there are many R packages that will help you read xls directly (e.g. gdata package).
# get user's home directory
home = setwd(Sys.getenv("HOME"));
# construct path to file
fpath = file.path(home, "Desktop", "RTrial.xls");
# load gdata library to read xls files
library(gdata);
# read xls file
Rtrial = read.xls(fpath);
Let me know if this works.
Save as in excel will keep the file open and lock it so you can't open it. Close the excel file or you won't be able to use it in R.
Give the full path and escape backslashes read.csv("c:\\users\\JoeUser\\Desktop\\JoesData.csv")
I have experienced that this error occurs when you either move the excel file to the destination other than where your r file is located or when you move your r file to the destination other than where your excel file is located.
Good Practice:
Keep your .r and .csv files in the same directory.
open your .r file from getting into its directory instead of opening the r file from rstuio's open file option.
You also have import Dataset option at Environment Block, just click there and get your required packages installed & from next time use this option to read datasets. You will not get this error again.
I also appreciate the above provided answers.
Another way of reading Excel including the new format xlsx could be the package speedR (https://r-forge.r-project.org/projects/speedr/). It is an interactive and visual data importer. Besides importing you can filter(subset) the existing objects from the R workspace.
My issue was very simple, the working directory was not the "Source" directory that was printed when the file ran. To fix this, you can use getwd() and setwd() to get your relative links working, or just use a full path when opening the csv.
print(getwd()) # Where does the code think it is?
setwd("~/Documents") # Where do I want my code to be?
dat = read.csv("~/Documents/Data Visualization/expDataAnalysis/one/ac1_survey.csv") #just make it work!
MAC OS It happened to me as well. I simply chose from the R toolbar MISC and then chose Change Working Directory. I was able to choose the directory that the .csv file was saved in. When I went back to the command line and typed getwd() the full directory was updated and correct and the read.csv function finally worked.
I had the same problem and when I checked the properties of the file on file explorer, it shows me the next message:
"Security: This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer"
You click on the "Unblock" button and... you can access to the file from R without any problem, just using read.csv() function and from the directory specified as your working directory, even if is not the same as the file’s directory you are accessing to.
I just had this problem and I first switched to another directory and then switched back and the problem was fixed.
this work for me, accesing data from root. use double slash to access address.
dataset = read.csv('C:\\Users\\Desktop\\Machine Learning\\Data.csv')
Kindly check whether the file name has an extension for example:
abc.csv
if so remove the .csv extension.
set wd to the folder containing the file (~)
data<-read.csv("abc.csv")
Your data has been read the data object
In my case this very problem was raised by wrong spelling, lower case 'c:' instead of upper case 'C:' in the path. I corrected spelling and problem vanished.
You can add absolute path to the file
heisenberg <- read.csv(file="C:/Users/tiago/Desktop/sample_100000.csv")
If really want to run something like
heisenberg <- read.csv(file="sample_100000.csv")
then you'll have to change the working directory to match the place the .CSV file is at. More about it here.

How to write data into a macro-enabled Excel file (write.xlslx corrupts my document)?

I'm trying to write a table into a macro-enabled Excel file (.xlsm) through the R. The write.xlsx (openxlsx) and writeWorksheetToFile (XLconnect) functions don't work.
When I used the openxlsx package, as seen below, the resulting .xlsm files ended up getting corrupted.
Code:
library(XLConnect)
library(openxlsx)
for (i in 1:3){
write.xlsx(Input_Files[[i]], Inputs[i], sheetName="Input_Sheet")
}
#Input_Files[[i]] are the R data.frames which need to be inserted into the .xslm file
#Inputs[i] are the excel files upon which the tables should be written into
Corrupted .xlsm file error message after write.xlsx:
Excel cannot open the file 'xxxxx.xslm' because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file
After researching this problem extensively, I found that the XLConnect connect package offers the writeWorksheetToFile function which works with .xlsm, albeit after running it a few times it yields an error message that there is no more free space. It also runs for 20+ minutes for tables with approximately 10,000 lines. I tried adding xlcFreeMemory at the beginning of the for loop, but it doesn't solve the issue.
Code:
library(XLConnect)
library(openxlsx)
for (i in 1:3){
xlcFreeMemory()
writeWorksheetToFile(Inputs[i], Input_Files[[i]], "Input_Sheet")
}
#Input_Files[[i]] are the R data.frames which need to be inserted into the .xslm file
#Inputs[i] are the excel files upon which the tables should be written into
Could anyone recommend a way to easily and quickly transfer an R table into an xlsm file without corrupting it?

How to read .xlsx file using XLConnect in R

I want to read an .xls or .xlsx file from my hard drive using R. I installed the XLConnect package and have received the following errors:
Data <- readWorksheet(loadWorkbook("C:/test1.xlsx"),sheet=1)
Error: FileNotFoundException (Java): File 'test1.xlsx' could not be found - you may specify to automatically create the file if not existing.
I want to read the first tab of my Excel file. I also tried the gdata read.xls function and failed.
Try to define your working directory before calling the xlsx file. So use the function setwd before calling the file. Example:
setwd("the location where the file is placed on your pc")
Data <- readWorksheet(loadWorkbook("C:/test1.xlsx"),sheet=1)
Note: make sure u are using forward slashes instead of backwards slashes in the setwd function.

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