R: convert variable to csv string

Question

I would like to know how to convert a variable in R to csv string.

> x = c(1:10)
> a = write.csv(x)
"","x"
"1",1
"2",2
"3",3
"4",4
"5",5
"6",6
"7",7
"8",8
"9",9
"10",10
> a
NULL
>

I want to have the CSV string in variable 'a'.

Thanks

it isn't clear what you want. Perhaps you could show us what the end state would look like? — RJ-
– RJ-, Commented May 18, 2012 at 9:36
To add to RJ's question: what do you mean by "post to a remote server" ? Do you want to post a csv file? Or what? — Carl Witthoft
– Carl Witthoft, Commented May 18, 2012 at 11:37
as said, I want to have the CSV string representation, which is printed to console by write.csv, stored in variable a. Does this make it clearer? — user1052080
– user1052080, Commented May 18, 2012 at 13:32
It's the reverse of stackoverflow.com/questions/3261066/… ..... — user1052080
– user1052080, Commented May 18, 2012 at 13:38

user1052080 · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-19 08:45:45Z

6

Things can be so simple ....

 > zz <- textConnection("foo1", "w") 
 > textConnectionValue(zz) 
 character(0) 
 > write.csv(x, zz) 
 > textConnectionValue(zz) 
 [1] "\"\",\"x\"" "\"1\",1" "\"2\",2" "\"3\",3" "\"4\",4" 
 [6] "\"5\",5" "\"6\",6" "\"7\",7" "\"8\",8" "\"9\",9" 
 [11] "\"10\",10"
 >

answered May 19, 2012 at 8:45

user1052080

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2 Comments

Carsten Over a year ago

Even easier: You don't need textConnectionValue(zz). The value is already in variable foo1

user3603486 Over a year ago

A couple of clarifications: probably you want something like: "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10". For this you must pass a matrix rather than a vector to write.csv. Also, you want row.names=FALSE in write.csv. Unfortunately you cannot set col.names=FALSE and will either have to use write.table for this, or do foo1[2,] to skip the vector of column names.

user3603486 · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-19 19:41:05Z

3

Here's an alternative, even easier:

foo2 <- capture.output(write.csv(matrix(1:6,nrow=2), stdout(), row.names=F)) 
foo2
## "\"V1\",\"V2\",\"V3\"" "1,3,5"                "2,4,6"

Probably what you want is:

foo2[-1,]    
## "\"V1\",\"V2\",\"V3\"" "1,3,5"                "2,4,6"

answered Nov 19, 2014 at 19:41

user3603486

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