[R] Downloading tab separated data from internet

HC hcatbr at yahoo.co.in
Sat Dec 3 13:06:38 CET 2011


Thanks for your reply.

I tried to use the  postForm function of RCurl as below but do not have much
clue as to how to go further with what it does. 

library(RCurl)
stn<-"03015795"
myurl<-paste("http://ida.water.usgs.gov/ida/available_records.cfm?sn=",stn,sep="")
mypage1 = readLines(myurl)

# Getting the start and end dates
mypattern = '<td align="center">([^<]*)</td>'
datalines = grep(mypattern, mypage1[124], value=TRUE)

getexpr = function(s,g)substring(s,g,g+attr(g,'match.length')-1)
gg = gregexpr(mypattern, datalines)
matches = mapply(getexpr,datalines,gg)
result = gsub(mypattern,'\\1',matches)
names(result)=NULL
mydates<-result[1:2]

result = postForm(myurl,fromdate=mydates[1], todate=mydates[2],rtype="Save
to File", submit1="Retrieve Data")


I tried to read the RCurl's documentation but do not know what functions I
should be using. Are there any  examples available that could be helpful.
Could you point me to those please.

Thanks for the help.
HC

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