A smart function for reading data files

Reads data based on file extension

Reads in .rda files like any other data file would (outputs an object, which you can name whatever you want)

read_smart(x, ...)

read_rda(x)

Arguments

x

Name of file to read.
...

Other args passed on to read-in function, see details for more info.

Value

Info from file returned as R data object.

Details

Here is the function logic

  • csv = readr::read_csv

  • rds = readRDS

  • rda|Rdata = load

  • xlsx = openxlsx::read.xlsx

  • sav = haven::read_sav

  • dta = haven::read_dta

  • tsv = read.delim

  • fst = fst::read_fst

  • dt|data.table = data.table::fred

  • txt|table = read.table

  • html = xml2::read_html

  • xml = xml2::read_xml

  • json = jsonlite::stream_in

  • yaml = yaml::read_yaml

Examples

## save congress data as .rds, .csv, and .rda files
saveRDS(congress, "congress.rds")
#> Error in saveRDS(congress, "congress.rds"): object 'congress' not found
save(congress, file = "congress.rda")
#> Error in save(congress, file = "congress.rda"): object ‘congress’ not found
write.csv(congress, "congress.csv", row.names = FALSE)
#> Error in is.data.frame(x): object 'congress' not found

## now read and view each file
(c1 <- read_smart("congress.rds"))
#> Warning: cannot open compressed file 'congress.rds', probable reason 'No such file or directory'
#> Error in gzfile(file, "rb"): cannot open the connection
(c2 <- read_smart("congress.csv"))
#> Error: 'congress.csv' does not exist in current working directory ('/Users/kearneymw/R/smartread/docs/reference').
(c3 <- read_smart("congress.rda"))
#> Warning: cannot open compressed file 'congress.rda', probable reason 'No such file or directory'
#> Error in readChar(con, 5L, useBytes = TRUE): cannot open the connection