Loading Data into R

How to Load Data into R

Data of various formats can be loaded into R. The sample data supplied in this module (see the Download Scripts and Sample Data page) is formatted as tab-delimited text and can be loaded using the following command:

Then, load these data files into R as follows:

site.species <- read.delim("site.species.txt")
site.species.or <- read.delim("site.species.or.txt")
env.data <- read.delim("env.data.txt")
env.data.or <- read.delim("env.data.or.txt")

Examine the data files you loaded and review how they are formatted:

fix(site.species)
fix(env.data)

The site-species data has a column with a site identifier and then a column for each taxon and a row for each site. Each numerical entry indicates the number of individuals for a given taxon and a given site.

The environmental data has a column with a site identifier and a column for each environmental variable (stream temperature, "temp"; and log-transformed percent sand and fines, "sed").

Next, merge data files so that each set of environmental data is matched with the appropriate biological data.

dfmerge <- merge(site.species, env.data, by = "SITE.ID")
dfmerge.or <- merge(site.species.or, env.data.or, by = "SITE.ID")