Having discussed the ideas associated with directories and files, we can now discuss how to read data. Here, we will provide an overview of the different ways to get information from a file. We will begin with a short overview about entering data from the command line followed by examples for reading a text file in the form of a table, from a csv file, and fixed width files. Finally, we will discuss more primitive methods to read from a binary file.

It is important to note that we rely on the topics discussed in Chapter 1, Data Types and Chapter 2, Organizing Data. I assume that you are familiar with the various data types given in Chapter 1, Data Types, as well as the data structures discussed in Chapter 2, Organizing Data. In this chapter, we will explore a small number of ways to read data into R. There are a large number of libraries available to read data in a wide variety of formats such as JSON, XML, SAS, Excel, and other file formats. There are also more options available...