R: Specify cells for reading

cell-specification {readxl} | R Documentation

## Specify cells for reading

### Description

The `range` argument of `read_excel()` provides many ways to limit the read to a specific rectangle of cells. The simplest usage is to provide an Excel-like cell range, such as `range = "D12:F15"` or `range ="R1C12:R6C15"`. The cell rectangle can be specified in various other ways, using helper functions. You can find more examples at the sheet geometry vignette. In all cases, cell range processing is handled by the cellranger package, where you can find full documentation for the functions used in the examples below.

### See Also

The cellranger package has full documentation on cell specification and offers additional functions for manipulating "A1:D10" style spreadsheet ranges. Here are the most relevant:

- `cellranger::cell_limits()`

- `cellranger::cell_rows()`

- `cellranger::cell_cols()`

- `cellranger::anchored()`

### Examples

    path <- readxl_example("geometry.xls")
    ## Rows 1 and 2 are empty (as are rows 7 and higher)
    ## Column 1 aka "A" is empty (as are columns 5 of "E" and higher)

    # By default, the populated data cells are "shrink-wrapped" into a
    # minimal data frame
    read_excel(path)

    # Specific rectangle that is subset of populated cells, possibly improper
    read_excel(path, range = "B3:D6")
    read_excel(path, range = "C3:D5")

    # Specific rectangle that forces inclusion of unpopulated cells
    read_excel(path, range = "A3:D5")
    read_excel(path, range = "A4:E5")
    read_excel(path, range = "C5:E7")

    # Anchor a rectangle of specified size at a particular cell
    read_excel(path, range = anchored("C4", dim = c(3, 2)), col_names = FALSE)

    # Specify only the rows
    read_excel(path, range = cell_rows(3:5))
    ## is equivalent to
    read_excel(path, range = cell_rows(c(3, 5)))

    # Specify only the columns by column number or letter
    read_excel(path, range = cell_cols("C:D"))
    read_excel(path, range = cell_cols(2))

    # Specify exactly one row or column bound
    read_excel(path, range = cell_rows(c(5, NA)))
    read_excel(path, range = cell_rows(c(NA, 4)))
    read_excel(path, range = cell_cols(c("C", NA)))
    read_excel(path, range = cell_cols(c(NA, 2)))

    # General open rectangles
    # upper left = C4, everything else unspecified
    read_excel(path, range = cell_limits(c(4, 3), c(NA, NA)))
    # upper right = D4, everything else unspecified
    read_excel(path, range = cell_limits(c(4, NA), c(NA, 4)))

[Package readxl version 1.4.0 Index]