Learn R From ZERO — Ep. 12: Importing Data in R (Mac + Windows)

Episode 12, and this is the episode where R stops being a practice space and starts being an actual tool. Every dataset you'll ever really work with starts outside R — this is how you get it in. This episode covers: 🔹 Building data directly with c() — quick, but doesn't scale 🔹 Using dataframes, plus edit() for manual spreadsheet-style data entry 🔹 Importing from a text file with read.table() — and how to do this on Mac, since Notepad doesn't exist there 🔹 Importing from a CSV file with read.csv() — no extra package needed 🔹 A couple of Mac-specific notes along the way, since I record on Mac and a couple of steps look slightly different than on Windows 00:00 – Introduction | Importing Data into R 00:26 – Why Importing Data Matters 02:20 – Method 1: Creating Vectors in R 03:13 – Method 2: Creating Data Frames Using `data.frame()` 03:29 – The `edit()` Function: Entering Data Like a Spreadsheet 04:05 – Mac vs. Windows: Setting Up the `edit()` Function 04:45 – Example: Creating a Data Frame with `edit()` 05:43 – Entering Names and Cities into a Data Frame 06:43 – Viewing the Imported Data in R 07:20 – Limitations of the `edit()` Function 08:09 – Method 3: Importing Data from a Text File 08:17 – Creating a Text File in RStudio (Mac and Windows) 09:24 – Example: Preparing Tab-Separated Data 10:05 – Saving and Importing a `.txt` File Using `read.table()` 10:42 – Understanding `header = TRUE` 11:00 – Selecting and Importing a Text File 11:40 – Fixing the Text File Import Issue 12:03 – Viewing Imported Text Data in R 12:28 – Importing Text Files on Windows and Mac 13:20 – `header = TRUE` vs. `header = FALSE` 13:59 – Example: Importing Data Without Column Headers 14:24 – Method 4: Importing CSV Files into R 14:34 – What Is a CSV File? 14:51 – Creating and Saving a CSV File Correctly 15:48 – Importing CSV Files Using `read.csv()` 16:03 – Understanding the `read.csv()` Syntax 16:40 – Example: Importing Student Data from a CSV File 16:58 – `read.csv()` vs. `read.table()` 17:09 – Episode 12 Recap: Four Ways to Import Data into R 17:31 – Importing Text Files Using `read.table()` 17:48 – Importing CSV Files Using `read.csv()` 18:07 – Like, Subscribe & Outro Mac users: if edit() asks you to install something the first time, that's XQuartz — a free, one-time official download: https://www.xquartz.org/ No prior coding background needed — just pick up where Episode 11 left off. 📌 New here? I'm Aaheli, a stats & data science student sharing everything I'm learning in R, one video at a time.