I have done a series of blog posts on how R can be used in Power BI. I have also created quick videos for each of those posts and I will do the same for this post. I find it easier and more efficient to share this information via video than through a narrative with screenshots. In this blog post, I’m going to share the code that can be used to check if a file exist prior to processing of that file. I will record a video that goes in more depth and include that in the blog post later.

Check if file exist

As someone who comes from an enterprise BI background, I am always looking for ways to handle things I would have previously done with SSIS. With R integration we have a lot of new possibilities.

The Code:

fileexists <- FALSE
fileName   <- “C:\\Backup\\Blogs\\R – Check if File Exist\\CustomerSales1.csv“

while (fileexists == FALSE)
    {
   #fileexists = TRUE ##Test Expression
   fileexists <-
            if(
                file.exists(fileName))
               {TRUE} else {FALSE}
   print(fileexists)
   ## Add 3 second Delay
   Sys.sleep(3)   
    }
   
    data  = read.csv(fileName)
    head(data)