#    
## What is delimited data?

In **delimited data**, data fields are separated by characters to indicate a structure of columns and rows. This is commonly used to portray data in an unbiased fashion. Any character can be used as a delimiter; however, the comma, tab, and colon are the most widely used, and such data files can be read in R as follows.

## Reading delimited data files in R

The **`read.table()` function** in R reads a file into a data frame. The file can be comma-delimited, tab-delimited, or any other delimiter given by the `sep=` argument. If the argument `header=` is set to `TRUE`, the first row is used as the column name.

Comma-separated values aka CSVs:

- Use commas to separate the data fields.
- A newline character marks the end of each row.
- It has the file extension `.csv`.



```
C1,C2,C3
1,A,a
2,B,b
3,C,c
4,D,d
5,E,e
6,F,f
7,G,g
8,H,h
```

C1,C2,C3
1,A,a
2,B,b
3,C,c
4,D,d
5,E,e
6,F,f
7,G,g
8,H,h

data<-read.table('data.csv',
                   sep=',',
                   header=TRUE)

data

> In the above-given code block, the argument **`sep=','`** specifies a COMMA as the variable delimiter.

Tab-separated values aka TSVs:

- Use tabs to separate the data fields.
- A newline character marks the end of each row.
- It has the file extension `.tsv`.



```
food   calories
Apple        95
Banana      111
Cherries      4
Dates        20
Grapes      104
Lime         20
Mango       202
Orange       62
```

food	calories
Apple	95
Banana	111
Cherries	4
Dates	20
Grapes	104
Lime	20
Mango	202
Orange	62

data<-read.table('data.tsv',
                   sep='\t',
                   header=TRUE)

data

> In the above-given code block, the argument **`sep='\t'`** specifies a TAB as the variable delimiter.

Commas are common in data, while tab characters resemble spaces, increasing confusion for human editing. As a result, any character that isn't often used in data is commonly used to delimit files.

For example, the **pipe character `|`** is a popular way to delimit fields that can be read in R as follows:

data<-read.table('data.txt',
                   sep='|',
                   header=TRUE)

data

> Similarly, one can read any x-delimited file in R by specifying its delimiter as: **`sep='x'`** (where `x` is the delimiter).

Summary

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How to read delimited data files in R

 What is delimited data? In delimited data, data fields are separated by characters to indicate a structure of columns and rows. This is commonly used to portray data in an unbiased fashion. Any character can be used as a delimiter; however, the comma, tab, and colon are the most widely used, and such data files can be read in R as follows. Reading delimited data files in R The read.table() function in R reads a file into a data frame. The file can be comma-delimited, tab-delimited, or any other delimiter given by the sep= argument. If the argument header= is set to TRUE, the first row is used as the column name. 

File	R Command
Comma-delimited (.CSV)	`read.table(<filename>, sep=',', header=TRUE)`
Tab-delimited (.TSV)	`read.table(<filename>, sep='\t', header=TRUE)`
Pipe-delimited (.TXT)	`read.table(<filename>, sep='\|', header=TRUE)`
Any x-delimited (.TXT)	`read.table(<filename>, sep='x', header=TRUE)`