RData.FromBinary

Accessing Data

Returns a record of data frames from an R Data (.rdata / .rda) binary file.

Syntax

RData.FromBinary(stream as binary) as any

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`stream`	`binary`	Yes	The binary content of an RData file (.rdata or .rda) containing serialized R data frames.

Return Value

any — A record where each field corresponds to a named data frame from the RData file. Each data frame is represented as a table.

Remarks

RData.FromBinary reads the binary content of an R Data file (.rdata or .rda) and returns a record containing the data frames stored within it. Each field in the returned record corresponds to a named R object, and data frames are converted to Power Query tables.

Supported R objects: The function primarily supports R data frames, which are converted to tables. Other R object types (vectors, lists, matrices) may be included in the record but their conversion behavior varies. Complex R objects such as S4 classes or environments are not supported.

How to use: Since RData.FromBinary expects a binary value, it is typically combined with File.Contents (for local files) or Web.Contents (for files hosted at a URL) to supply the binary stream.

Authentication: This function does not perform any authentication itself. Authentication is handled by the function that supplies the binary content (e.g., File.Contents for local files, Web.Contents for web-hosted files).

Query folding: Not supported. The entire RData file is read into memory and parsed. All subsequent Power Query transformations are applied in-memory.

Platform availability: Available in Power BI Desktop and Excel Desktop. Supported in Power BI Service for scheduled refresh (when the file source is accessible). Available in Dataflows. Not available in Excel Online or Fabric Notebooks.

Limitations:

Large RData files may consume significant memory during parsing.
R-specific data types (factors, ordered factors, POSIXct dates) are converted to their closest Power Query equivalents.
Only objects saved with save() in the standard RData format are supported. RDS files (single-object serialization via saveRDS()) are not supported by this function.

Examples

Example 1: Load data frames from a local RData file

let
    Source = RData.FromBinary(File.Contents("C:\Data\analysis.rdata"))
in
    Source

Example 2: Access a specific data frame by name

let
    Source = RData.FromBinary(File.Contents("C:\Data\analysis.rdata")),
    SalesData = Source[sales_df]
in
    SalesData

Example 3: Load an RData file from a URL

let
    Source = RData.FromBinary(
        Web.Contents("https://example.com/data/dataset.rdata")
    )
in
    Source

Compatibility

✓ Power BI Desktop✓ Power BI Service✓ Excel Desktop✗ Excel Online✓ Dataflows✗ Fabric Notebooks