library(foreign) DF <- data.frame(X1 = 1:3, X2 = 4:6, X3 = paste0("str_", 1:3), stringsAsFactors = FALSE) write.foreign(DF, "datafile.dat", "codefile.sps", "SPSS") files <- c( "datafile.dat", "codefile.sps") for(f in files) tools::Rdiff(f, file.path("keep", f)) unlink(files)