Reading a European .csv
In most of Europe, commas (rather than periods) are used as decimal points. This creates an issue for comma-separated value files: since commas can no longer be used to separate values, semicolons are used instead.
For this reason, readr provides read_csv2(), which looks for ; to indicate column breaks and , to indicate decimal points. Other than that, it behaves just like read_csv().
In this exercise, you'll see what happens when you incorrectly use read_csv() on datasets that contain values separated by semicolons. You'll import a dataset that contains information on the girth, height, and volume for Black Cherry Trees.
This exercise is part of the course
Reading Data into R with readr
Exercise instructions
The readr package and the trees.csv file are loaded in your workspace.
- Correctly import
trees.csvwith theread_csv2()function and store the result astrees. - View the dimensions of
treesusing thedim()function and print the first six rows oftreesto the console. - Now incorrectly import the data with
read_csv()and store the result astrees_wrong. - View the dimensions of
trees_wrongusing thedim()function and print the first six rows oftrees_wrongto the console.
Hands-on interactive exercise
Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.
# Import data with read_csv2(): trees
# View dimensions and head of trees
# Import data with read_csv(): trees_wrong
# View dimensions and head of trees_wrong