Getting csv data.frame from an "https" source in R (e.g. GitHub)

read.csv.url

# if you are OK if a data.frame is produced and you don't want the function to install anything:

read.csv.url <- function(url, method = "curl", ...) {
  tmpFile <- tempfile()
  download.file(url, destfile = tmpFile, method = method)
  url.data <- read.csv(tmpFile, ...)
  return(url.data)
}



# Example:
# file_url <- "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/egorufimtsev/econ808/master/women_wages.csv"
# d <- read.csv.url(file_url)
# 
# #the same result:
# d <- read.csv.url(file_url, header = T, sep = ",")
# 
# #2 if you want the function be able to also return a data.table:
# install.packages("data.table")
# library(data.table)
# read.csv.url <- function(url, method = "curl", out = "data.frame", ...) {
#   tmpFile <- tempfile()
#   download.file(url, destfile = tmpFile, method = method)
#   if (out == "data.frame") {
#     url.data <- read.csv(tmpFile, ...)
#   }
#   if (out == "data.table") {
#     url.data <- fread(tmpFile, ...)
#   }
#   return(url.data)
# }
# 
# file_url <- "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/egorufimtsev/econ808/master/women_wages.csv"
# d1 <- read.csv.url(file_url)
# d2 <- read.csv.url(file_url, out = "data.table")
# 
# #the same result:
# d1 <- read.csv.url(file_url, header = T, sep = ",")
# d2 <- read.csv.url(file_url, out = "data.table", header = T, sep = ",")
# 
# 
# #3 this fails
# d3 <- read.csv(url(file_url), header = T, sep = ",") 
# 
# #4 this fails
# install.packages("RCurl")
# library(RCurl)
# tmp <- getURL(file_url)
# d4 <- read.csv(text = tmp, header = T, sep = ",")