xls packages.txt

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Packages

This section aims to list the packages that are currently available to create a connection between R and Excel, and show the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. However, the development and maintenance of packages being provided by the community of users of R, it is likely that this list today established in 2013, is completely outdated in a few years to see a few months.

excel.link:

Rather complete package, it allows read and write Excel files (even creating new sheets in a file). However, it does not allow the creation of new files, you'll be forced to pre-create. A version of Excel must be installed on the machine, plus it only works on a Windows version of R for the moment.

WriteXLS:

This package to the advantage of being cross platform. it allows you to create Excel files (xls and xlsx) and insert objects of type data.frame. His most flagrant limitation is that it only allows to insert one data frame per page.

XLConnect:

It is also cross platform. Its biggest advantage is that it does not need to have Microsoft Excel installed on the machine to read or write to an Excel file. This is a Java library which does the job, which is why it is necessary to have the Java Runtime Environment installed on the machine (but it is already on many machines).

Link to find a pdf summarizing some function packages XLConnect .

xlsx:

My favorite! Initially because I work only with files in this format ... Then its simplicity and ability. It is cross-platform and allows reading and writing files and creating folders. The fact that it is cross-platform allows me to use my scripts on Mac and Windows PC, my two workstations. My examples will be mostly from the use of this package.

RExcel:

This package is much more complete than others, but its ambitions are much larger. Here it is no longer only to access an Excel file to read or write data, but rather to integrate R (and other components) in Excel in order to improve capacity.

For more information on the subject is here (English only). In the tab "Download" you can download all the items you need, but also consult the documentation to put everything in place.

The philosophy of this package is different from the others I've mentioned above, there will be a more complete later article.