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The aim ofrio is to make data file I/O in R as easy as possible byimplementing two main functions in Swiss-army knife style:

• import() provides a painless data import experience byautomatically choosing the appropriate import/read function based onfile extension (or a specifiedformat argument)
• export() provides the same painless file recognition for dataexport/write functionality

The package is available onCRAN and can be installeddirectly in R usinginstall.packages().

install.packages("rio")

The latest development version on GitHub can be installed using:

if (!require("remotes")){    install.packages("remotes")}remotes::install_github("gesistsa/rio")

Optional: Installation of additional formats (see below:Supportedfile formats)

library(rio)install_formats()

Becauserio is meant to streamline data I/O, the package isextremely easy to use. Here are some examples of reading, writing, andconverting data files.

Importing data is handled with one function,import():

library("rio")import("starwars.xlsx")

##                  Name homeworld species## 1      Luke Skywalker  Tatooine   Human## 2               C-3PO  Tatooine   Human## 3               R2-D2  Alderaan   Human## 4         Darth Vader  Tatooine   Human## 5         Leia Organa  Tatooine   Human## 6           Owen Lars  Tatooine   Human## 7  Beru Whitesun lars   Stewjon   Human## 8               R5-D4  Tatooine   Human## 9   Biggs Darklighter  Kashyyyk Wookiee## 10     Obi-Wan Kenobi  Corellia   Human

import("starwars.csv")

##                  Name homeworld species## 1      Luke Skywalker  Tatooine   Human## 2               C-3PO  Tatooine   Human## 3               R2-D2  Alderaan   Human## 4         Darth Vader  Tatooine   Human## 5         Leia Organa  Tatooine   Human## 6           Owen Lars  Tatooine   Human## 7  Beru Whitesun lars   Stewjon   Human## 8               R5-D4  Tatooine   Human## 9   Biggs Darklighter  Kashyyyk Wookiee## 10     Obi-Wan Kenobi  Corellia   Human

Exporting data is handled with one function,export():

export(mtcars,"mtcars.csv")# comma-separated valuesexport(mtcars,"mtcars.rds")# R serializedexport(mtcars,"mtcars.sav")# SPSS

A particularly useful feature of rio is the ability to import from andexport to compressed archives (e.g., zip), saving users the extra stepof compressing a large exported file, e.g.:

export(mtcars,"mtcars.tsv.zip")

export() can also write multiple data frames to respective sheets ofan Excel workbook or an HTML file:

export(list(mtcars=mtcars,iris=iris),file="mtcars.xlsx")

rio supports a wide range of file formats. To keep the package slim,several formats are supported via “Suggests” packages, which are notinstalled (or loaded) by default. You can check which formats arenot supported via:

show_unsupported_formats()

You can install the suggested packages individually, depending your ownneeds. If you want to install all suggested packages:

install_formats()

The full list of supported formats is below:

Additionally, any format that is not supported byrio but that has aknown R implementation will produce an informative error messagepointing to a package and import or export function. Unrecognizedformats will yield a simple “Unrecognized file format” error.

Theconvert() function linksimport() andexport() by constructinga dataframe from the imported file and immediately writing it back todisk.convert() invisibly returns the file name of the exported file,so that it can be used to programmatically access the new file.

convert("mtcars.sav","mtcars.dta")

It is also possible to userio on the command-line by callingRscript with the-e (expression) argument. For example, to convert afile from Stata (.dta) to comma-separated values (.csv), simply do thefollowing:

Rscript -e "rio::convert('iris.dta', 'iris.csv')"

import_list() allows users to import a list of data frames from amulti-object file (such as an Excel workbook, .Rdata file, zipdirectory, or HTML file):

str(m<- import_list("mtcars.xlsx"))

## List of 2##  $ mtcars:'data.frame':  32 obs. of  11 variables:##   ..$ mpg : num [1:32] 21 21 22.8 21.4 18.7 18.1 14.3 24.4 22.8 19.2 ...##   ..$ cyl : num [1:32] 6 6 4 6 8 6 8 4 4 6 ...##   ..$ disp: num [1:32] 160 160 108 258 360 ...##   ..$ hp  : num [1:32] 110 110 93 110 175 105 245 62 95 123 ...##   ..$ drat: num [1:32] 3.9 3.9 3.85 3.08 3.15 2.76 3.21 3.69 3.92 3.92 ...##   ..$ wt  : num [1:32] 2.62 2.88 2.32 3.21 3.44 ...##   ..$ qsec: num [1:32] 16.5 17 18.6 19.4 17 ...##   ..$ vs  : num [1:32] 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 ...##   ..$ am  : num [1:32] 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ...##   ..$ gear: num [1:32] 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 ...##   ..$ carb: num [1:32] 4 4 1 1 2 1 4 2 2 4 ...##  $ iris  :'data.frame':  150 obs. of  5 variables:##   ..$ Sepal.Length: num [1:150] 5.1 4.9 4.7 4.6 5 5.4 4.6 5 4.4 4.9 ...##   ..$ Sepal.Width : num [1:150] 3.5 3 3.2 3.1 3.6 3.9 3.4 3.4 2.9 3.1 ...##   ..$ Petal.Length: num [1:150] 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.5 1.4 1.7 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.5 ...##   ..$ Petal.Width : num [1:150] 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.1 ...##   ..$ Species     : chr [1:150] "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" ...

export_list() makes it easy to export a list of (possibly named) dataframes to multiple files:

export_list(m,"%s.tsv")c("mtcars.tsv","iris.tsv")%in% dir()

## [1] TRUE TRUE

• datamods providesShiny modules for importing data viario.
• rioweb that providesaccess to the file conversion features ofrio.
• GREA is an RStudio add-inthat provides an interactive interface for reading in data usingrio.

• reader handlescertain text formats and R binary files
• io offers a set ofcustom formats
• ImportExportfocuses on select binary formats (Excel, SPSS, and Access files) andprovides a Shiny interface.
• SchemaOnReaditerates through a large number of possible import methods until oneworks successfully