Specify cells for reading

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. 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)
#> # A tibble: 3 x 3
#>   B3    C3    D3   
#>   <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 B4    C4    D4   
#> 2 B5    C5    D5   
#> 3 B6    C6    D6   

# Specific rectangle that is subset of populated cells, possibly improper
read_excel(path, range = "B3:D6")
#> # A tibble: 3 x 3
#>   B3    C3    D3   
#>   <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 B4    C4    D4   
#> 2 B5    C5    D5   
#> 3 B6    C6    D6   
read_excel(path, range = "C3:D5")
#> # A tibble: 2 x 2
#>   C3    D3   
#>   <chr> <chr>
#> 1 C4    D4   
#> 2 C5    D5   

# Specific rectangle that forces inclusion of unpopulated cells
read_excel(path, range = "A3:D5")
#> New names:
#> * `` -> ...1
#> # A tibble: 2 x 4
#>   ...1  B3    C3    D3   
#>   <lgl> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 NA    B4    C4    D4   
#> 2 NA    B5    C5    D5   
read_excel(path, range = "A4:E5")
#> New names:
#> * `` -> ...1
#> * `` -> ...5
#> # A tibble: 1 x 5
#>   ...1  B4    C4    D4    ...5 
#>   <lgl> <chr> <chr> <chr> <lgl>
#> 1 NA    B5    C5    D5    NA   
read_excel(path, range = "C5:E7")
#> New names:
#> * `` -> ...3
#> # A tibble: 2 x 3
#>   C5    D5    ...3 
#>   <chr> <chr> <lgl>
#> 1 C6    D6    NA   
#> 2 NA    NA    NA   

# Anchor a rectangle of specified size at a particular cell
read_excel(path, range = anchored("C4", dim = c(3, 2)), col_names = FALSE)
#> New names:
#> * `` -> ...1
#> * `` -> ...2
#> # A tibble: 3 x 2
#>   ...1  ...2 
#>   <chr> <chr>
#> 1 C4    D4   
#> 2 C5    D5   
#> 3 C6    D6   

# Specify only the rows or only the columns
read_excel(path, range = cell_rows(3:6))
#> # A tibble: 3 x 3
#>   B3    C3    D3   
#>   <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 B4    C4    D4   
#> 2 B5    C5    D5   
#> 3 B6    C6    D6   
read_excel(path, range = cell_cols("C:D"))
#> # A tibble: 3 x 2
#>   C3    D3   
#>   <chr> <chr>
#> 1 C4    D4   
#> 2 C5    D5   
#> 3 C6    D6   
read_excel(path, range = cell_cols(2))
#> # A tibble: 3 x 1
#>   B3   
#>   <chr>
#> 1 B4   
#> 2 B5   
#> 3 B6   

# Specify exactly one row or column bound
read_excel(path, range = cell_rows(c(5, NA)))
#> # A tibble: 1 x 3
#>   B5    C5    D5   
#>   <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 B6    C6    D6   
read_excel(path, range = cell_rows(c(NA, 4)))
#> New names:
#> * `` -> ...1
#> * `` -> ...2
#> * `` -> ...3
#> # A tibble: 3 x 3
#>   ...1  ...2  ...3 
#>   <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 NA    NA    NA   
#> 2 B3    C3    D3   
#> 3 B4    C4    D4   
read_excel(path, range = cell_cols(c("C", NA)))
#> # A tibble: 3 x 2
#>   C3    D3   
#>   <chr> <chr>
#> 1 C4    D4   
#> 2 C5    D5   
#> 3 C6    D6   
read_excel(path, range = cell_cols(c(NA, 2)))
#> New names:
#> * `` -> ...1
#> # A tibble: 3 x 2
#>   ...1  B3   
#>   <lgl> <chr>
#> 1 NA    B4   
#> 2 NA    B5   
#> 3 NA    B6   

# General open rectangles
# upper left = C4, everything else unspecified
read_excel(path, range = cell_limits(c(4, 3), c(NA, NA)))
#> # A tibble: 2 x 2
#>   C4    D4   
#>   <chr> <chr>
#> 1 C5    D5   
#> 2 C6    D6   
# upper right = D4, everything else unspecified
read_excel(path, range = cell_limits(c(4, NA), c(NA, 4)))
#> New names:
#> * `` -> ...1
#> # A tibble: 2 x 4
#>   ...1  B4    C4    D4   
#>   <lgl> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 NA    B5    C5    D5   
#> 2 NA    B6    C6    D6