fread
You still remember how to use read.table(), right? Well, fread() is a function that does the same job with very similar arguments. It is extremely easy to use and blazingly fast! Often, simply specifying the path to the file is enough to successfully import your data.
Don't take our word for it, try it yourself! You'll be working with the potatoes.csv (view) file, that's available in your workspace. Fields are delimited by commas, and the first line contains the column names.
This exercise is part of the course
Introduction to Importing Data in R
Exercise instructions
- Use
library()to load (NOT install) thedata.tablepackage. You do not need to install the package, it is already installed on DataCamp's servers. - Import
"potatoes.csv"withfread(). Simply pass it the file path and see if it worked. Store the result in a variablepotatoes. - Print out
potatoes.
Hands-on interactive exercise
Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.
# load the data.table package using library()
library(____)
# Import potatoes.csv with fread(): potatoes
____ <- ____
# Print out potatoes
___