Using R to download zipped data file, extract, and import .csv

Question

I am trying to download and extract a .csv file from a webpage using R.

This question is a duplicate of Using R to download zipped data file, extrac

Answer 1

It's almost everything ok. In this case you only need to specify that it's a comma separated file, eg using sep="," in read.table:

temp <- tempfile()
download.file("http://api.worldbank.org/v2/en/country/gbr?downloadformat=csv", 
              temp)
con <- unz(temp, "gbr_Country_en_csv_v2.csv")
dat <- read.table(con, header=T, skip=2, sep=",")
unlink(temp)

With this little change i can import your csv smoothly.

HTH, Luca

Answer 2

The Word Bank Developmet Indictors can be obtained using the WDI package. For example,

library(WDI)
inds <- WDIsearch(field = "indicator")[, 1]
GB <- WDI("GB", indicator = inds)

See WDIsearch and WDI functions and the rerference manual for more info.

Answer 3

In order to get your data to download and uncompress, you need to set mode="wb"

download.file("...",temp, mode="wb")
unzip(temp, "gbr_Country_en_csv_v2.csv")
dd <- read.table("gbr_Country_en_csv_v2.csv", sep=",",skip=2, header=T)

It looks like the default is "w" which assumes a text files. If it was a plain csv file this would be fine. But since it's compressed, it's a binary file, hence the "wb". Without the "wb" part, you can't open the zip at all.