R: Read/write a complete file

read_file {readr} | R Documentation

## Read/write a complete file

### Description

`read_file()` reads a complete file into a single object: either a character vector of length one, or a raw vector. `write_file()` takes a single string, or a raw vector, and writes it exactly as is. Raw vectors are useful when dealing with binary data, or if you have text data with unknown encoding.

### Usage

    read_file(file, locale = default_locale())

    read_file_raw(file)

    write_file(x, file, append = FALSE, path = deprecated())

### Arguments

`file` | Either a path to a file, a connection, or literal data (either a single string or a raw vector). Files ending in `.gz`, `.bz2`, `.xz`, or `.zip` will be automatically uncompressed. Files starting with `http://`, `https://`, `ftp://`, or `ftps://` will be automatically downloaded. Remote gz files can also be automatically downloaded and decompressed. Literal data is most useful for examples and tests. To be recognised as a path, it must be wrapped with `I()`, be a string containing at least one new line, or be a vector containing at least one string with a new line. Using a value of `clipboard()` will read from the system clipboard.
`locale` | The locale controls defaults that vary from place to place. The default locale is US-centric (like R), but you can use `locale()` to create your own locale that controls things like the default time zone, encoding, decimal mark, big mark, and day/month names.
`x` | A single string, or a raw vector to write to disk.
`append` | If `FALSE`, will overwrite existing file. If `TRUE`, will append to existing file. In both cases, if the file does not exist a new file is created.
`path` | , use the `file` argument instead.

### Value

`read_file`: A length 1 character vector. `read_lines_raw`: A raw vector.

### Examples

    read_file(file.path(R.home("doc"), "AUTHORS"))
    read_file_raw(file.path(R.home("doc"), "AUTHORS"))

    tmp <- tempfile()

    x <- format_csv(mtcars[1:6, ])
    write_file(x, tmp)
    identical(x, read_file(tmp))

    read_lines(I(x))

[Package readr version 2.0.2 Index]