How to Export DataFrame to CSV in R

by

Here are three methods to export DataFrame to CSV in R:

  1. Using write.csv() function from the base package
  2. Using write_csv() function from readr package
  3. Using fwrite() function from data.table package

Method 1: Using write.csv() function

Syntax

write.csv(x, file, traitsAsDir = FALSE, csv2 = TRUE, 
          row.names = FALSE, fileEncoding = "UTF-8" ...)

Parameters

  1. x: It is a data frame or other data added to the csv.
  2. file: It is a character file name with or without a .csv extension, e.g., both “file” and “file.csv” are valid.
  3. traitsAsDir: Logically, the result should be saved within trait folders; the construction is a file.path(dirname(), trait, basename()); folders are created if they do not exist.
  4. csv2: It is a Logical export using write.csv2 or write.csv.
  5. row.names: It is a Logical export row name as well.

Example

df <- data.frame(
  service_id = c(1:5),
  service_name = c("Netflix", "Disney+", "HBOMAX", "Hulu", "Peacock"),
  service_price = c(18, 10, 15, 7, 12),
  stringsAsFactors = FALSE
)

write.csv(df, "shows.csv", row.names = FALSE)
cat("The data frame is exported", "\n")

Output

 The data frame is exported

And you can see in your current working directory that a file will be created called shows.csv.

Exporting a CSV file without an index or row number

df <- data.frame(
  Name = c("Juan", "Alcaraz", "Simantha"),
  Age = c(22, 15, 19),
  Vote = c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE)
)

write.csv(df, file = "new_file.csv", row.names = FALSE)

Output

The newly created new_file.csv file has the following contents.

"Name","Age","Vote"
"Juan",22,TRUE
"Alcaraz",15,FALSE
"Simantha",19,TRUE

Exporting a CSV file in which NA is replaced as an empty string

df <- data.frame(
  Name = c("Juan", "Alcaraz", "Simantha"),
  Age = c(22, 15, NA),
  Vote = c(TRUE, NA, TRUE)
)

write.csv(df, file = "new_file.csv", na = "", row.names = FALSE)

Output

"Name","Age","Vote"
"Juan",22,TRUE
"Alcaraz",15,
"Simantha",,TRUE

You can see that we replaced NA values with “”(empty strings).

Exporting a CSV file without quotes

df <- data.frame(
  Name = c("Juan", "Alcaraz", "Simantha"),
  Age = c(21, 19, 46),
  Vote = c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE)
)

write.csv(df, file = "new_file.csv", row.names = FALSE, quote = FALSE)

Output

Name,Age,Vote
Juan,21,TRUE
Alcaraz,19,FALSE
Simantha,46,TRUE

Exporting a CSV file with encoding

df <- data.frame(
  Name = c("Juan", "Alcaraz", "Simantha"),
  Age = c(21, 19, 46),
  Vote = c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE)
)

write.csv(df, file = "new_file.csv", row.names = FALSE, fileEncoding = "UTF-8")

Output

Name,Age,Vote
Juan,21,TRUE
Alcaraz,19,FALSE
Simantha,46,TRUE

Exporting CSV without Header using write.table()

df <- data.frame(
  Name = c("Juan", "Alcaraz", "Simantha"),
  Age = c(21, 19, 46),
  Vote = c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE)
)

write.table(df, file = "new_file.csv", col.names = FALSE)

Output

Check out the new_file.csv file. It has the following contents.

"1" "Juan" 21 TRUE
"2" "Alcaraz" 19 FALSE
"3" "Simantha" 46 TRUE

Method 2: Using the write_csv() function from reader package

The write_csv() function from the readr package allows you to write a data frame to a CSV file easily. The function is designed to be a fast and flexible way to export data frames to CSV files.

If you haven’t installed the readr package yet, you can install it using:

install.packages("readr")

Here is the complete code example:

library(readr)

# Create a data frame
data_frame <- data.frame(
  Name = c("Alice", "Bob", "Catherine"),
  Age = c(24, 30, 22),
  Profession = c("Engineer", "Doctor", "Artist")
)

# Write the data frame to a CSV file
write_csv(data_frame, "data_frame.csv")

Output

Using write_csv() function from reader package

 

Method 3: Using fwrite() function from data.table package

If you haven’t installed the data.table package yet, you can install it using:

install.packages("data.table")

Here’s how you can use the fwrite() function to export a data frame to a CSV file:

library(data.table)

# Create a data frame
data_frame <- data.frame(
  Name = c("Alice", "Bob", "Catherine"),
  Age = c(24, 30, 22),
  Profession = c("Engineer", "Doctor", "Artist")
)

# Write the data frame to a CSV file
fwrite(data_frame, "data_frame.csv")

Output

Using the fwrite() function from data.table package

Related posts

Read CSV File into DataFrame

read.xlsx() function

read.delim() function

1 thought on “How to Export DataFrame to CSV in R”

Leave a Comment