CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rweb-scrapingrvest
tomw
tomw

Reputation: 3158

Using R to download *.xls files generates error

I'm trying to download a large number of xls files from the BLS servers. When I manually download any of the files, they open perfectly.

But when I try to download the file from inside R:

library(readxl)

tp <- "http://www.bea.gov/histdata/Releases/GDP_and_PI/2014/Q4/Third_March-27-2015/Section1ALL_Hist.xls"
temp <- paste0(tempfile(), ".xls")
download.file(tp, destfile = temp, mode = "wb")

this downloads a file of the right size, but attempting to read the file:

 data <- read_excel(path = temp, sheet = 1)

returns the error

seek: wanted to seek to sector 5374034 (0x520052) loc=2751505920

Upvotes: 3

Views: 464

Answers (1)

Hong Ooi
Hong Ooi

Reputation: 57686

Set mode="wb" to do a binary transfer:

download.file(tp, destfile=temp, mode="wb")

Upvotes: 3

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