How to read excel file in R ?

We may work with structured data from spreadsheets, take advantage of R’s capabilities for data analysis and manipulation, and incorporate Excel data into other R processes and packages by reading Excel files in R. The readxl package offers a simple and effective method for reading Excel files into R as data frames for additional processing and analysis.

In this article, we will be discussing two different techniques to read or import an Excel file in R.

Approach

Import module
Pass the path of the file to the required function
Read file
Display content

Method 1: Using read_excel() from readxl

read_excel() function is basically used to import/read an Excel file and it can only be accessed after importing the readxl library in R language..

Syntax:

read_excel(path)

The read_excel() method extracts the data from the Excel file and returns it as an R data frame. It instantly recognizes the Excel file’s sheets and imports the data from the default sheet, which is often the first page. The sheet option allows us to give a specific sheet’s name or index in order to read that particular sheet.

Example:

R

library(readxl)
 
Data_gfg <- read_excel("Data_gfg.xlsx")
 
Data_gfg

Output:

     group    value1    value2
1  Group A  9.539645 11.584165
2  Group A 13.117417  9.469207
3  Group A 10.141017 16.337912
4  Group A 10.258575 14.415924
5  Group A 13.430130  9.753783
6  Group A 10.921832 11.194230
7  Group A  7.469878 11.066689
8  Group A  8.626294 13.559930
9  Group A  9.108676 11.833262
10 Group A 12.448164 12.506637

Method 2: Using read.xlsx() from xlsx

read.xlsx() function is imported from the xlsx library of R language and used to read/import an excel file in R language.

Syntax:

read.xlsx(path)

We can deal with structured data from spreadsheets and incorporate Excel data with other R packages and workflows by reading Excel files in R using the xlsx package. For additional processing and analysis, Excel files can be read into R as data frames using the read.xlsx() function.

Example:

R

install.packages("xlsx")
 
Data_gfg <-read.xlsx('Data_gfg.xlsx')
 
Data_gfg

Output:

     group    value1    value2
1  Group A  9.539645 11.584165
2  Group A 13.117417  9.469207
3  Group A 10.141017 16.337912
4  Group A 10.258575 14.415924
5  Group A 13.430130  9.753783
6  Group A 10.921832 11.194230
7  Group A  7.469878 11.066689
8  Group A  8.626294 13.559930
9  Group A  9.108676 11.833262
10 Group A 12.448164 12.506637

FAQ:

Q.1: Can we read multiple Excel files in one go?

Yes, we can read multiple Excel files by providing a vector of file paths to the read_excel() 
function.

Q.2: How we can read a specific range of cells from an Excel file?

The read_excel() function allows us to specify the range of cells to be read using the range
parameter.

Q.3: Can we read Excel files from a specific worksheet by name instead of an index?

Yes, you can read Excel files from a specific worksheet by name using the sheetName parameter in 
the read_excel() function.