Message-ID: <BAY125-W15393CDA694BCF69A7C1C187D30@phx.gbl>
Date: 2009-01-19T18:26:37Z
From: Zack Holden
Subject: download/retain text file structure with RCurl/getURL()
Dear list,
I'm trying to download a text file directly from the internet using the RCurl package and the command getURL. Duncan Lang graciously helped me solve the first step in this problem using the following command:
#################
txtfile <- getURL('ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/snow/snow_course/table/history/idaho/13e19.txt',
ftp.use.epsv = FALSE)
#################
This brings the text file into R in a single long character string. I've spent many hours now trying to bring this text file into R into a sensible form. I've tried every variant of different commands in getURL help file, as well as different
strsplit() commands to try to break this character string into a sensible rows and columns, to no avail.
Can anyone suggest a solution for doing this? I suspect there is a getURL command I'm missing. Alternatively, do I really have to break this long character string into rows and columns that I can then assemble into a table?
I'd be grateful for any advice.
Thanks in advance,
Zack