1 Read or Import Data from RData Files in R

Download testdata.RData file.

The RData file format is used to store multiple R objects within a single file.

To read or import .RData files in R, if you set or have the working directory as the folder containing the file, use the line of code below:

load("testdata.RData")

Or specify the full path of where the file is located:

load("C:/Users/Public/Statscodes/Rdata/read-files/testdata.RData")

The "testdata" object contained in the "testdata.RData" file can now be viewed:

testdata

RData File Read in R

You can also view the object(s) contained in the .RData file with the line below:

str(load("C:/Users/Public/Statscodes/Rdata/read-files/testdata.RData"))

Image Showing Objects in RData File

2 Read or Import Data from RDS Files in R

Download testdata.RDS file.

The RDS file format can be used to store a single dataframe and is usually smaller in size compared to a text file.

To read or import .RDS files in R, if the file is in your working directory, you can use the line below:

readRDS("testdata.RDS")

Or specify the full path:

readRDS("C:/Users/Public/Statscodes/Rdata/read-files/testdata.RDS")

RDS File Read in R

3 Write or Export Data to RData and RDS Files in R

The dataframe named dtfrm will be used:

dtfrm = data.frame(Group = c("A", "B", "B", "C", "D"), 
                   ID = c("A02", "B12", "B15", "C04", "D07"), 
                   Score = c(9, 8, 8, 10, 7), 
                   Position = c(2, 3, 3, 1, 5))
dtfrm

  Group  ID Score Position
1     A A02     9        2
2     B B12     8        3
3     B B15     8        3
4     C C04    10        1
5     D D07     7        5

To write or export data to .RData files in R including one or more objects, use the line of code below to save the .RData file to the working directory (note that here, we are writing two dataframe objects):

save(dtfrm, BOD, file = "outdata.RData")

Or specify the full path of where you want to save it:

save(dtfrm, BOD, file = "C:/Users/Public/Statscodes/Rdata/write-files/outdata.RData")

The RData file should look like this reloaded in R and the objects viewed:

RData File Written and Reloaded in R

To write or export data to .RDS files in R, use the line of code below to save the .RDS file to the working directory:

saveRDS(dtfrm, file = "outdata.RDS")

The RDS file should look like this reloaded in R:

RDS File Written and Reloaded in R