Save Multiple Tables in Excel
Parag Verma
5th July, 2022
Introduction
There are certain situations where we want to store the results of various operations as separate tabs into an excel file .In this blog, we will look at a very simple example of how we can do that using dplyr and openxlsx library
package.name<-c("dplyr","openxlsx")
for(i in package.name){
if(!require(i,character.only = T)){
install.packages(i)
}
library(i,character.only = T)
}Step 1: Import the mtcars dataset
data(mtcars)
head(mtcars) mpg cyl disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
Mazda RX4 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.620 16.46 0 1 4 4
Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.875 17.02 0 1 4 4
Datsun 710 22.8 4 108 93 3.85 2.320 18.61 1 1 4 1
Hornet 4 Drive 21.4 6 258 110 3.08 3.215 19.44 1 0 3 1
Hornet Sportabout 18.7 8 360 175 3.15 3.440 17.02 0 0 3 2
Valiant 18.1 6 225 105 2.76 3.460 20.22 1 0 3 1Step 2: Store intermediate data frames in a List
Lets say we want to create three separate tables based on the unique values of cyl variable. Cyl column has unique values of 4,6 and 8. We will create three different data frames where each data frame will only have one value of cyl
l1<-lapply(unique(mtcars$cyl), function(x){
interim.df<-mtcars%>%
filter(cyl==x)
return(interim.df)
})
names(l1)<-unique(mtcars$cyl)
l1$`6`
mpg cyl disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
Mazda RX4 21.0 6 160.0 110 3.90 2.620 16.46 0 1 4 4
Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 6 160.0 110 3.90 2.875 17.02 0 1 4 4
Hornet 4 Drive 21.4 6 258.0 110 3.08 3.215 19.44 1 0 3 1
Valiant 18.1 6 225.0 105 2.76 3.460 20.22 1 0 3 1
Merc 280 19.2 6 167.6 123 3.92 3.440 18.30 1 0 4 4
Merc 280C 17.8 6 167.6 123 3.92 3.440 18.90 1 0 4 4
Ferrari Dino 19.7 6 145.0 175 3.62 2.770 15.50 0 1 5 6
$`4`
mpg cyl disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
Datsun 710 22.8 4 108.0 93 3.85 2.320 18.61 1 1 4 1
Merc 240D 24.4 4 146.7 62 3.69 3.190 20.00 1 0 4 2
Merc 230 22.8 4 140.8 95 3.92 3.150 22.90 1 0 4 2
Fiat 128 32.4 4 78.7 66 4.08 2.200 19.47 1 1 4 1
Honda Civic 30.4 4 75.7 52 4.93 1.615 18.52 1 1 4 2
Toyota Corolla 33.9 4 71.1 65 4.22 1.835 19.90 1 1 4 1
Toyota Corona 21.5 4 120.1 97 3.70 2.465 20.01 1 0 3 1
Fiat X1-9 27.3 4 79.0 66 4.08 1.935 18.90 1 1 4 1
Porsche 914-2 26.0 4 120.3 91 4.43 2.140 16.70 0 1 5 2
Lotus Europa 30.4 4 95.1 113 3.77 1.513 16.90 1 1 5 2
Volvo 142E 21.4 4 121.0 109 4.11 2.780 18.60 1 1 4 2
$`8`
mpg cyl disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
Hornet Sportabout 18.7 8 360.0 175 3.15 3.440 17.02 0 0 3 2
Duster 360 14.3 8 360.0 245 3.21 3.570 15.84 0 0 3 4
Merc 450SE 16.4 8 275.8 180 3.07 4.070 17.40 0 0 3 3
Merc 450SL 17.3 8 275.8 180 3.07 3.730 17.60 0 0 3 3
Merc 450SLC 15.2 8 275.8 180 3.07 3.780 18.00 0 0 3 3
Cadillac Fleetwood 10.4 8 472.0 205 2.93 5.250 17.98 0 0 3 4
Lincoln Continental 10.4 8 460.0 215 3.00 5.424 17.82 0 0 3 4
Chrysler Imperial 14.7 8 440.0 230 3.23 5.345 17.42 0 0 3 4
Dodge Challenger 15.5 8 318.0 150 2.76 3.520 16.87 0 0 3 2
AMC Javelin 15.2 8 304.0 150 3.15 3.435 17.30 0 0 3 2
Camaro Z28 13.3 8 350.0 245 3.73 3.840 15.41 0 0 3 4
Pontiac Firebird 19.2 8 400.0 175 3.08 3.845 17.05 0 0 3 2
Ford Pantera L 15.8 8 351.0 264 4.22 3.170 14.50 0 1 5 4
Maserati Bora 15.0 8 301.0 335 3.54 3.570 14.60 0 1 5 8Step 3: Writing the List into a excel file
Using the write.xlsx function, we can write the entire list into an excel file.The names of the tabs within the excel will be based on the names of the elements in the list
write.xlsx(l1, "mtacrs_cylinder.xlsx")Step 4: Screenshot of the Output excel file
In the next few blogs, we will look at how to format an excel file using R.
