Download a file from HTTPS using download.file()

Question

I would like to read online data to R using download.file() as shown below.

URL <- \"https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/getdata%2Fdata%2Fs         


        

Answer 1

It might be easiest to try the RCurl package. Install the package and try the following:

# install.packages("RCurl")
library(RCurl)
URL <- "https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/getdata%2Fdata%2Fss06hid.csv"
x <- getURL(URL)
## Or 
## x <- getURL(URL, ssl.verifypeer = FALSE)
out <- read.csv(textConnection(x))
head(out[1:6])
#   RT SERIALNO DIVISION PUMA REGION ST
# 1  H      186        8  700      4 16
# 2  H      306        8  700      4 16
# 3  H      395        8  100      4 16
# 4  H      506        8  700      4 16
# 5  H      835        8  800      4 16
# 6  H      989        8  700      4 16
dim(out)
# [1] 6496  188

download.file("https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/getdata%2Fdata%2Fss06hid.csv",destfile="reviews.csv",method="libcurl")