# R: Import data from many file formats

Import {car} | R Documentation

## Import data from many file formats

### Description

Use the `import` function from the rio package to read a data.frame from a variety of file types. The `Import` function includes 3 additional arguments adding row names and for converting character and logical variables to factors.

### Usage

    Import(file, format, ..., row.names=TRUE,
           stringsAsFactors = default.stringsAsFactors())

### Arguments

`file` | A character string naming a file, URL, or single-file .zip or .tar archive. See the details below. If the file name has an extention like `.xlsx` or `.csv` then the type of file is inferred from the extension.
`format` | If an extension is not present in the file name or it is wrong, the file format can be set with this argument; see `import`.
`...` | Additional arguments passed to `import`.
`row.names` | If `TRUE`, the default, the left-most character variable that has all unique elements is removed from the data frame and set to be `row.names`. To match `import`, set `row.names=FALSE`.
`stringsAsFactors` | If `TRUE`, then character variables that do not have all unique elements are converted to factors. The default is determined by the value of `options("stringsAsFactors")` whose "factory fresh" default is equal to `TRUE`. To get the default behavior of the `import` function, set `stringsAsFractors=FALSE`.

### Details

This function always calls the `import` function to read a data frame from a file. Many type of file are supported. The `Import` function allows the user to set `row.names`, and automatically convert character and logical variables to factors, but only if the `format` of the file is one of `"txt", "csv", "xlsx", "xls", "ods"`. Many more details are given at the man page for `import`.

### Value

A data frame. See `import` for more details

### Author(s)

Sanford Weisberg sandy@umn.edu

### See Also

`import`, `Export`

### Examples

    head(Duncan, 3) # first three rows
    Export(Duncan, "Duncan.csv", keep.row.names="occupation")
    Duncan2 <- Import("Duncan.csv") # Automatically restores row.names and factors
    head(Duncan2, 3) # first three rows
    identical(Duncan, Duncan2)
    # cleanup
    unlink("Duncan.csv")

[Package car version 3.0-2 Index]