The Rdatasets Archive is a language-agnostic website that hosts thousands of datasets in CSV format. These datasets can be freely downloaded from the website (with documentation), or from any data analysis environment.
The present page describes a package for R that provides a simple interface to search, download, and view documentation for datasets stored in both CSV and Parquet formats.
Installation
You can install the development version of Rdatasets from GitHub with:
remotes::install_github("vincentarelbundock/Rdatasets")
# optional dependency: faster downloads and less bandwidth
install.packages("nanoparquet")
rdsearch() Search for datasets
Use rdsearch() to find datasets by name, package, or title:
library(Rdatasets)
library(tinytable)
# Search all fields (default behavior)
rdsearch(pattern = "iris") |> head()
#> Package Dataset Title Rows Cols n_binary n_character n_factor n_logical n_numeric CSV Doc
#> 1010 datasets iris Edgar Anderson's Iris Data 150 5 0 0 1 0 4 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/datasets/iris.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/datasets/iris.html
#> 1011 datasets iris3 Edgar Anderson's Iris Data 50 12 0 0 0 0 12 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/datasets/iris3.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/datasets/iris3.html
# Case-insensitive search for datasets about the Titanic
rdsearch(pattern = "(?i)TITANIC", perl = TRUE)[, 1:4]
#> Package Dataset Title Rows
#> 698 carData TitanicSurvival Survival of Passengers on the Titanic 1309
#> 769 causaldata titanic Data from the sinking of the Titanic 2201
#> 803 COUNT titanic titanic 1316
#> 804 COUNT titanicgrp titanicgrp 12
#> 1057 datasets Titanic Survival of passengers on the Titanic 32
#> 2918 Stat2Data Titanic Passengers on the Titanic 1313
#> 3274 vcd Lifeboats Lifeboats on the Titanic 18
#> 3330 vcdExtra Titanicp Passengers on the Titanic 1309
# Search only in package names
rdsearch(pattern = "ggplot2movies", field = "package")
#> Package Dataset Title Rows Cols n_binary n_character n_factor n_logical n_numeric CSV Doc
#> 1659 ggplot2movies movies Movie information and user ratings from IMDB.com. 58788 24 7 2 0 0 22 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/ggplot2movies/movies.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/ggplot2movies/movies.html
# Search only in dataset names
rdsearch(pattern = "iris", field = "dataset")
#> Package Dataset Title Rows Cols n_binary n_character n_factor n_logical n_numeric CSV Doc
#> 1010 datasets iris Edgar Anderson's Iris Data 150 5 0 0 1 0 4 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/datasets/iris.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/datasets/iris.html
#> 1011 datasets iris3 Edgar Anderson's Iris Data 50 12 0 0 0 0 12 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/datasets/iris3.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/datasets/iris3.html
# Returns no rows
rdsearch(pattern = "bad_name", field = "dataset")
#> [1] Package Dataset Title Rows Cols n_binary n_character n_factor n_logical n_numeric CSV Doc
#> <0 rows> (or 0-length row.names)
# Search only in titles
rdsearch(pattern = "Edgar Anderson", field = "title")
#> Package Dataset Title Rows Cols n_binary n_character n_factor n_logical n_numeric CSV Doc
#> 1010 datasets iris Edgar Anderson's Iris Data 150 5 0 0 1 0 4 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/datasets/iris.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/datasets/iris.html
#> 1011 datasets iris3 Edgar Anderson's Iris Data 50 12 0 0 0 0 12 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/datasets/iris3.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/datasets/iris3.html
rddata() Download datasets
Use rddata() to download and load datasets:
# Download the famous André-Michel Guerry dataset
guerry <- rddata("Guerry")
head(guerry, 3)
#> rownames dept Region Department Crime_pers Crime_prop Literacy Donations Infants Suicides MainCity Wealth Commerce Clergy Crime_parents Infanticide Donation_clergy Lottery Desertion Instruction Prostitutes Distance Area Pop1831
#> 1 1 1 E Ain 28870 15890 37 5098 33120 35039 2:Med 73 58 11 71 60 69 41 55 46 13 218.372 5762 346.03
#> 2 2 2 N Aisne 26226 5521 51 8901 14572 12831 2:Med 22 10 82 4 82 36 38 82 24 327 65.945 7369 513.00
#> 3 3 3 C Allier 26747 7925 13 10973 17044 114121 2:Med 61 66 68 46 42 76 66 16 85 34 161.927 7340 298.26
# Download the Titanic data from a specific package
titanic <- rddata("Titanic", "Stat2Data")
head(titanic, 3)
#> rownames Name PClass Age Sex Survived SexCode
#> 1 1 Allen, Miss Elisabeth Walton 1st 29 female 1 1
#> 2 2 Allison, Miss Helen Loraine 1st 2 female 0 1
#> 3 3 Allison, Mr Hudson Joshua Creighton 1st 30 male 0 0
rdindex() Browse the full dataset index
Use rdindex() to get the complete list of available datasets:
idx <- rdindex()
cat("Total datasets available:", nrow(idx), "\n")
#> Total datasets available: 3451
cat("Number of packages:", length(unique(idx$Package)), "\n")
#> Number of packages: 100
tail(idx, 10)
#> Package Dataset Title Rows Cols n_binary n_character n_factor n_logical n_numeric CSV Doc
#> 3442 wooldridge twoyear twoyear 6763 23 15 0 0 0 23 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/wooldridge/twoyear.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/wooldridge/twoyear.html
#> 3443 wooldridge volat volat 558 17 0 0 0 0 17 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/wooldridge/volat.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/wooldridge/volat.html
#> 3444 wooldridge vote1 vote1 173 10 1 1 0 0 9 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/wooldridge/vote1.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/wooldridge/vote1.html
#> 3445 wooldridge vote2 vote2 186 26 5 1 0 0 25 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/wooldridge/vote2.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/wooldridge/vote2.html
#> 3446 wooldridge voucher voucher 990 19 13 0 0 0 19 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/wooldridge/voucher.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/wooldridge/voucher.html
#> 3447 wooldridge wage1 wage1 526 24 16 0 0 0 24 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/wooldridge/wage1.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/wooldridge/wage1.html
#> 3448 wooldridge wage2 wage2 935 17 4 0 0 0 17 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/wooldridge/wage2.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/wooldridge/wage2.html
#> 3449 wooldridge wagepan wagepan 4360 44 37 0 0 0 44 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/wooldridge/wagepan.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/wooldridge/wagepan.html
#> 3450 wooldridge wageprc wageprc 286 20 0 0 0 0 20 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/wooldridge/wageprc.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/wooldridge/wageprc.html
#> 3451 wooldridge wine wine 21 5 0 1 0 0 4 https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/wooldridge/wine.csv https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/wooldridge/wine.html
rddocs() View dataset documentation
Use rddocs() to open dataset documentation in your browser:
Performance Features
- Caching: All functions cache results by default to speed up repeated access and reduce server load
-
Parquet support: When
nanoparquetis installed, datasets are downloaded in Parquet format (faster, smaller) -
CSV fallback: Automatically falls back to CSV format when
nanoparquetis not available
You can disable caching behavior:
options(Rdatasets_cache = FALSE)Note: Please keep caching enabled (TRUE) as it makes repeated access faster and avoids overloading the Rdatasets server.
Output Formats
The package supports three output formats that can be set globally:
# Default: data.frame (no additional dependencies)
options(Rdatasets_cache = FALSE)
options(Rdatasets_class = "data.frame")
rddata("iris") |> class()
#> [1] "data.frame"
# Tibble format (requires tibble package)
options(Rdatasets_class = "tibble")
rddata("iris")
#> # A tibble: 150 × 6
#> rownames Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
#> <int> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>
#> 1 1 5.1 3.5 1.4 0.2 setosa
#> 2 2 4.9 3 1.4 0.2 setosa
#> 3 3 4.7 3.2 1.3 0.2 setosa
#> 4 4 4.6 3.1 1.5 0.2 setosa
#> 5 5 5 3.6 1.4 0.2 setosa
#> 6 6 5.4 3.9 1.7 0.4 setosa
#> 7 7 4.6 3.4 1.4 0.3 setosa
#> 8 8 5 3.4 1.5 0.2 setosa
#> 9 9 4.4 2.9 1.4 0.2 setosa
#> 10 10 4.9 3.1 1.5 0.1 setosa
#> # ℹ 140 more rows
# data.table format (requires data.table package)
options(Rdatasets_class = "data.table")
rddata("iris")
#> rownames Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
#> <int> <num> <num> <num> <num> <char>
#> 1: 1 5.1 3.5 1.4 0.2 setosa
#> 2: 2 4.9 3.0 1.4 0.2 setosa
#> 3: 3 4.7 3.2 1.3 0.2 setosa
#> 4: 4 4.6 3.1 1.5 0.2 setosa
#> 5: 5 5.0 3.6 1.4 0.2 setosa
#> ---
#> 146: 146 6.7 3.0 5.2 2.3 virginica
#> 147: 147 6.3 2.5 5.0 1.9 virginica
#> 148: 148 6.5 3.0 5.2 2.0 virginica
#> 149: 149 6.2 3.4 5.4 2.3 virginica
#> 150: 150 5.9 3.0 5.1 1.8 virginica
options(Rdatasets_cache = TRUE)
options(Rdatasets_class = "data.frame")The format setting applies to all functions that return data (rddata(), rdindex(), rdsearch()).