read_data: Read a data file with automatic header detection

In rolescry: Name-Blind Variable-Role Detection by Data Signature

Read a data file with automatic header detection

Description

Reads a tabular file into a data.frame, detecting the header row with detect_header() (the data is first read with no header so the header row is visible as data). Delimited text (.csv/.tsv) is read with base R and always works; spreadsheet and statistical formats use optional packages and degrade gracefully with an actionable error if the package is absent.

Usage

read_data(
  path,
  header = NULL,
  sheet = NULL,
  na_strings = c("", "NA", "N/A", "n/a", "na", "NULL", "null", "."),
  verbose = FALSE
)

Arguments

path	Path to the file.
header	Optional integer giving the 1-based header row to use directly, bypassing detection. NULL (default) auto-detects.
sheet	Optional sheet name/index for Excel files.
na_strings	Character vector of tokens mapped to NA before type conversion.
verbose	Logical; emit the detected header row via message().

Details

Supported: .csv, .tsv/.tab (base); .xlsx/.xls/.xlsm (Suggests: readxl or openxlsx); .sav/.sas7bdat/.dta (Suggests: haven, header intrinsic); .rds (base, returned as stored).

Value

A data.frame with detected column names and per-column types inferred via type.convert.

See Also

detect_header(), detect_roles()

Examples

tmp <- tempfile(fileext = ".csv")
writeLines(c("age,sex,score", "34,M,8.1", "51,F,7.4"), tmp)
read_data(tmp)
file.remove(tmp)

rolescry documentation built on Oct. 21, 2026, 5:14 p.m.