In previous lessons, you learned how to handle datasets stored in compressed formats using JSON and manage large numerical datasets using the Arrow package with Parquet files. Building on that foundation, today's lesson will teach you how to read and process data in batches from multiple CSV files in R. This is important because working with data in smaller chunks, or batches, can make your code more efficient and faster when dealing with large datasets.

Our focus in this lesson will be on a practical scenario where a dataset containing car information is spread across multiple files. You will learn to read, process, and analyze this data to extract meaningful insights, such as determining the car with the lowest price.

In this lesson, we'll work with a set of CSV files containing car data. Here's what a typical record might look like:

• Model: Ford Mustang
• Transmission: Automatic
• Year: 2020
• Price: 25000.00
• Distance Traveled (km): 50000
• Color: Red

These files are divided into multiple parts to allow batch processing, and understanding their structure is crucial as you learn to read and process them efficiently.

Now, let's delve into reading these CSV files in batches. We'll build our solution step by step.

First, we need to specify the filenames for our CSV files and prepare a data structure to hold the combined data.

R
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1# Filenames to read
2filenames <- c("data_part1.csv", "data_part2.csv", "data_part3.csv")
3
4# List to store all car data
5car_data <- list()

Here, we initialize a vector of filenames for the CSV files we want to read. We use a list (car_data) to store the data because we will be appending individual data frames to it, and lists are more flexible for such operations.

Now, we'll loop through each filename, read the data, and append it to our car_data list.

R
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1for (filename in filenames) {
2  data <- read.csv(filename)
3  car_data <- append(car_data, list(data))
4}

In this snippet:

• We use a for loop to iterate over our vector of filenames.
• For each file, we use read.csv(filename) to read the data into a dataframe, which is appended to the car_data list.

With all data combined in car_data, the next step is to identify the car with the lowest price.

R
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1# Combine data into a single dataframe
2car_data <- do.call(rbind, car_data)
3
4# Convert price column to numeric
5car_data$price <- as.numeric(car_data$price)
6
7# Find the car with the lowest price
8lowest_cost_car <- car_data[which.min(car_data$price), ]
9
10cat(sprintf("Model: %s\n", lowest_cost_car$model))
11cat(sprintf("Price: $%.2f\n", lowest_cost_car$price))

Here:

• We combine the list of dataframes into a single dataframe using do.call(rbind, car_data).
• The price column is converted to numeric for accurate comparison.
• We use which.min() to find the car with the lowest price. This function returns the index of the smallest element in a numeric vector.
• Finally, we print the model and price of the car with the lowest price, providing a clear output.

While the previous solution loads all data into memory, an alternative approach involves streaming data, processing each record as it's read. This is beneficial for systems with limited memory or when working with extremely large datasets. Below, you'll find the implementation of this streaming approach:

R
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1# Filenames to read
2filenames <- c("data_part1.csv", "data_part2.csv", "data_part3.csv")
3
4# Initialize variables to keep track of the lowest price car
5lowest_cost_car <- NULL
6lowest_price <- Inf
7
8# Process each file one by one
9for (filename in filenames) {
10  data <- read.csv(filename)
11  data$price <- as.numeric(data$price)
12  current_lowest <- data[which.min(data$price), ]
13
14  if (is.null(lowest_cost_car) || current_lowest$price < lowest_price) {
15    lowest_price <- current_lowest$price
16    lowest_cost_car <- current_lowest
17  }
18}
19
20# Output the car with the lowest price
21if (!is.null(lowest_cost_car)) {
22  cat(sprintf("Model: %s\n", lowest_cost_car$model))
23  cat(sprintf("Price: $%.2f\n", lowest_cost_car$price))
24}

In this implementation:

• We maintain two variables: lowest_cost_car to store the data of the car with the lowest price and lowest_price initialized to infinity for comparison purposes.
• As we stream through each CSV file, we convert the price field to numeric and find the lowest price in the current batch.
• If the current record's price is lower than our stored lowest price, we update lowest_price and store the entire row in lowest_cost_car.
• This approach processes each batch individually and does not accumulate the data, effectively reducing the application's memory footprint.

In this lesson, you learned how to:

• Read data in batches from multiple CSV files using R's read.csv().
• Process that data efficiently and convert data types when necessary.
• Identify specific insights, such as the car with the lowest price, by using which.min().

Now, you're ready to apply these skills with practice exercises designed to reinforce your understanding. These exercises will challenge you to read and analyze data from similar datasets efficiently. Continuous practice is key to mastering these data handling techniques.