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Asked: 2026-05-15T15:51:18+00:00

I have an Excel file that I am trying to load into R using

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I have an Excel file that I am trying to load into R using the odbcConnectExcel and sqlQuery commands from RODBC package. One of the columns has numerical values with plus or minus signs, such as ‘5+ or ‘3-. However, if i do something like,

conn <- odbcConnectExcel("file.xls")
sqlQuery(conn, "SELECT * FROM `Sheet1$`")

then the column with the plus and minus signs will be returned as a numerical column with those symbols stripped. Is there a way to have this column read in as a factor in which the signs are maintained? I would prefer to not have to convert the file to another format first.

Thanks.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Data like this becomes a factor if you use the xlsReadWrite (http://www.swissr.org/software/xlsreadwrite) package to read the file:

    library(xlsReadWrite)
x <- read.xls(file="file.xls")

    However, note that you need to do something more than just install.packages("xlsReadWrite") to get this package to run. You need another file or so, I forgot.

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