[R-sig-Debian] read.csv fails in R console in Ubuntu terminal but works in RStudio after R 3.6.3 upgrade to R 4.0.2

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

On 15 July 2020 at 16:16, Sam H wrote:
| I am trying to download some data using read.csv and it works perfectly in
| RStudio and fails in the R console in the terminal in Ubuntu 18.04 after
| upgrading from R 3.6.3 to 4.0.2. Before upgrading this worked in the R
| console in the terminal also without any issues.
| 
| Why would that be? How to fix this?
| 
| Below please find R code output and sessionInfo().
| 
| *Works in RStudio*
| 
| > read.csv("https://old.nasdaq.com/screening/companies-by-name.aspx?letter=0&exchange=1&render=download", header=TRUE, as.is=TRUE, na="n/a")

Ok, let's stop right here.  First off, for good debugging it helps to separate

 - downloading a file via R from
 - reading a file
 - maybe varying the arguments you give there

In my case this got easier. I clicked on the link (in Ubuntu 20.04) and it
downloaded it. From there few problems. `read.csv()` just reads it:

edd using rob:~/Downloads$ Rscript -e 'data.table::fread("companylist.csv", header=TRUE)'
      Symbol                                   Name LastSale MarketCap IPOyear            Sector                                                     industry                       Summary Quote V9
   1:    TXG                     10x Genomics, Inc.    88.91    $8.75B    2019     Capital Goods             Biotechnology: Laboratory Analytical Instruments   https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/txg NA
   2:     YI                              111, Inc.     6.64  $546.87M    2018       Health Care                                     Medical/Nursing Services    https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/yi NA
   3:    PIH 1347 Property Insurance Holdings, Inc.    4.528   $27.48M    2014           Finance                                   Property-Casualty Insurers   https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/pih NA
   4:  PIHPP 1347 Property Insurance Holdings, Inc.  24.8631       n/a     n/a           Finance                                   Property-Casualty Insurers https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/pihpp NA
   5:   TURN               180 Degree Capital Corp.     1.67   $51.97M     n/a           Finance                                   Finance/Investors Services  https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/turn NA
  ---                                                                                                                                                                                               
3622:     ZS                          Zscaler, Inc.   122.43   $15.98B    2018        Technology                                                 EDP Services    https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/zs NA
3623:   ZUMZ                            Zumiez Inc.    25.55  $649.76M    2005 Consumer Services                               Clothing/Shoe/Accessory Stores  https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/zumz NA
3624:   ZYNE          Zynerba Pharmaceuticals, Inc.     3.41   $85.08M    2015       Health Care                                        Major Pharmaceuticals  https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/zyne NA
3625:   ZYXI                            Zynex, Inc.    26.22  $870.31M     n/a       Health Care Biotechnology: Electromedical & Electrotherapeutic Apparatus  https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/zyxi NA
3626:   ZNGA                             Zynga Inc.     9.82   $10.54B    2011        Technology                                                 EDP Services  https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/znga NA
edd using rob:~/Downloads$

For kicks, same with data.table:

edd using rob:~/Downloads$ Rscript -e 'str(read.csv("companylist.csv"))'
'data.frame':   3626 obs. of  9 variables:
 $ Symbol       : chr  "TXG" "YI" "PIH" "PIHPP" ...
 $ Name         : chr  "10x Genomics, Inc." "111, Inc." "1347 Property Insurance Holdings, Inc." "1347 Property Insurance Holdings, Inc." ...
 $ LastSale     : chr  "88.91" "6.64" "4.528" "24.8631" ...
 $ MarketCap    : chr  "$8.75B" "$546.87M" "$27.48M" "n/a" ...
 $ IPOyear      : chr  "2019" "2018" "2014" "n/a" ...
 $ Sector       : chr  "Capital Goods" "Health Care" "Finance" "Finance" ...
 $ industry     : chr  "Biotechnology: Laboratory Analytical Instruments" "Medical/Nursing Services" "Property-Casualty Insurers" "Property-Casualty Insurers" ...
 $ Summary.Quote: chr  "https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/txg" "https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/yi" "https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/pih" "https://old.nasdaq.com/symbol/pihpp" ...
 $ X            : logi  NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
edd using rob:~/Downloads$ 

So in short, if you have a problem, it is not likely coming from the Ubuntu
binary for R 4.0.2 which I am running here.

Maybe start by downloading the file?  You could have firewall or other
issues. We can't tell. And we can't reproduce the issue.

Good luck,  Dirk
 
-- 
https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd using debian.org