How to Read an Excel File in R
· 1 min read · Updated March 15, 2026 · beginner
r excel data-import readxl openxlsx
Excel files are everywhere in data work. R has several solid options for reading them.
With readxl
The readxl package is part of the tidyverse and handles .xls and .xlsx files:
library(readxl)
df <- read_excel("data.xlsx")Read a specific sheet by name or number:
df <- read_excel("data.xlsx", sheet = "Sales")
df <- read_excel("data.xlsx", sheet = 2)See Also
- How to Read a CSV File in R — Related data import
- How to Write a CSV File in R — Exporting data