One common error you may encounter in R is:
Error in file(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection In addition: Warning message: In file(file, "rt") : cannot open file 'data.csv': No such file or directory
This error occurs when you attempt to , but the file name or directory you’re attempting to access does not exist.
This tutorial shares exactly how to fix this error.
How to Reproduce the Error
Suppose I have a CSV file called data.csv saved in the following location:
C:UsersBobDesktopdata.csv
And suppose the CSV file contains the following data:
team, points, assists 'A', 78, 12 'B', 85, 20 'C', 93, 23 'D', 90, 8 'E', 91, 14
Suppose I use the following syntax to read in this CSV file into R:
#attempt to read in CSV file df <- read.csv('data.csv') Error in file(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection In addition: Warning message: In file(file, "rt") : cannot open file 'data2.csv': No such file or directory
I receive an error because this file doesn’t exist in the current working directory.
How to Fix the Error
I can use the getwd() function to actually find the working directory I’m in:
#display current directory
getwd()
[1] "C:/Users/Bob/Documents"
Since my CSV file is located on my desktop, I need to change the working directory using setwd() and then use read.csv() to read in the file:
#set current directory setwd('C:\Users\Bob\Desktop') #read in CSV file df <- read.csv('data.csv', header=TRUE, stringsAsFactors=FALSE) #view data df team points assists 1 A 78 12 2 B 85 20 3 C 93 23 4 D 90 8 5 E 91 14
Another way to import the CSV without setting the working directory would be to specify the entire file path in R when importing:
#read in CSV file using entire file path df <- read.csv('C:\Users\Bob\Desktop\data.csv', header=TRUE, stringsAsFactors=FALSE) #view data df team points assists 1 A 78 12 2 B 85 20 3 C 93 23 4 D 90 8 5 E 91 14