# Julia save ".rdata" equivalent

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-save-rdata-equivalent/41326>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [June 13, 2020, 3:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-save-rdata-equivalent/41326 "2020-06-13T15:03:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![laut](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/laut/32/15651_2.png) [@laut](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/laut)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 3:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-save-rdata-equivalent/41326/1 "2020-06-13T15:03:09Z")

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I can’t find a consensus for what would be a good .rdata file equivalent. I like rdata files because they are very compact and I can throw multiple objects into them.  
Any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-save-rdata-equivalent/41326/2 "2020-06-13T15:11:47Z")

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Strictly speaking, there isn’t one. Julia’s type system is orders of magnitude more complex than R’s (which basically has about 6 vector types, the rest is done by metadata composed of the same).

I would recommend JSON or HDF5 for most applications.

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**Author:** ![xiaodai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/xiaodai/32/15937_2.png) [@xiaodai](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/xiaodai)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-save-rdata-equivalent/41326/3 "2020-06-14T03:19:10Z")

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> [@Unable to save Unitful unit into a JLD file](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/unable-to-save-unitful-unit-into-a-jld-file/40706/10):
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> In case you are not awre the options are Base.Serialization, BSON.jl, JLSO.jl, JLD.jl and JLD2.jl For dataframes-like you have Feather.jl Parquet.jl, JDF.jl, HDF5.jl

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**Author:** ![dlakelan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dlakelan/32/8491_2.png) [@dlakelan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dlakelan)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 4:37am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-save-rdata-equivalent/41326/4 "2020-06-14T04:37:06Z")

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SQLite which could store tabular data directly as tables, and serialized vars in a special vars table with blobs

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**Author:** ![aplavin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/aplavin/32/222056_2.png) [@aplavin](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/aplavin)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 6:12am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-save-rdata-equivalent/41326/5 "2020-06-14T06:12:31Z")

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For relatively short-lived data there is `serialize`/`deserialize` - I use them as a kind of a cache to save values that can easily be recomputed. Works reliably for complex types as well.

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**Author:** ![xiaodai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/xiaodai/32/15937_2.png) [@xiaodai](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/xiaodai)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 8:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-save-rdata-equivalent/41326/6 "2020-06-14T08:55:46Z")

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> [@dlakelan](#):
>
> SQLite

but can you reliable load the data back in the julia type?

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**Author:** ![dlakelan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dlakelan/32/8491_2.png) [@dlakelan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dlakelan)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-save-rdata-equivalent/41326/7 "2020-06-14T14:40:39Z")

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you can serialize the data and squish that into a blob column