R: Import CSV with column names that contain spaces

s_data <- read.csv( file=f_name , check.names=FALSE)

Unless you specify check.names=FALSE, R will convert column names that are not valid variable names (e.g. contain spaces or special characters or start with numbers) into valid variable names, e.g. by replacing spaces with dots. Try names(s_data). If you do use check.names=TRUE, then use single back-quotes (`) to surround the names.

I would also recommend using rename from the reshape package (or, these days, dplyr::rename).

s_data <- read.csv2( file=f_name )
library(reshape)
s_df <- rename(s_data,ID="scada_id",
               PlantNo="plant",DateTime="date",Main.status="main_code",
               Additional.status="seco_code",MainStatustext="main_text",
               AddStatustext="seco_test",Duration="duration")

For what it's worth, the tidyverse tools (i.e. readr::read_csv) have the opposite default; they don't transform the column names to make them legal R symbols unless you explicitly request it.


I believe spaces get replaced by dots "." when importing CSV files. So you'd write e.g. Main.status. You can check by entering names(s_data) to see what the names are.

Tags:

Csv

R