R is for read_

The tidyverse is full of functions for reading data, beginning with “read_”. The read_csv I’ve used to access my reads2019 data is one example, falling under the read_delim functions. read_tsv allows you to quickly read in tab-delimited files. And you can also read in files with other delimiters, using read_delim and specifying the delimiter used. You can also tell R if the file contains column names and whether those should be read in too, using col_names = TRUE.

But there are many more read_ functions you can use:

• read_clip: Data from the clipboard
• read_+ dta, sas, or spss: Data from other statistical programs
• read_json: JSON data
• read_fwf: Fixed-width files
• read_lines: Line from a file
• read_excel: Excel files – you’ll also need to include the worksheet name or number

All of these functions are included as part of the tidyverse packages, though for some, you may need to load the single package if it doesn’t automatically load with library(tidyverse) – this includes haven (for dta, sas, and spss) and readxl (for read_excel).

You can find out more about a particular function by typing ?[functionname] into the R console. Or use ?? before to search all of R help for a particular string, such as ??read_.

Tomorrow, let’s talk about summarizing data!