Reading Excel file from URL using readxl package

Question

Consider a file on the Internet (for example, this one (pay attention to s in https) https://evs.nci.nih.gov/ftp1/CDISC/SDTM/SDTM%20Terminology.xls

How can I read sheet 2 of a file in R?

The following code is an approximation of the desired (but a failure)

url1<-'https://evs.nci.nih.gov/ftp1/CDISC/SDTM/SDTM%20Terminology.xls'
p1f <- tempfile()
download.file(url1, p1f, mode="wb")
p1<-read_excel(path = p1f, sheet = 2)

Answer 1

This works for me on Windows:

library(readxl)
library(httr)
packageVersion("readxl")
# [1] ‘0.1.1’

GET(url1, write_disk(tf <- tempfile(fileext = ".xls")))
df <- read_excel(tf, 2L)
str(df)
# Classes ‘tbl_df’, ‘tbl’ and 'data.frame': 20131 obs. of  8 variables:
# $ Code                        : chr  "C115388" "C115800" "C115801" "C115802" ...
# $ Codelist Code               : chr  NA "C115388" "C115388" "C115388" ...
# $ Codelist Extensible (Yes/No): chr  "No" NA NA NA ...
# $ Codelist Name               : chr  "6 Minute Walk Functional Test Test Code" "6 Minute Walk Functional Test Test Code" "6 Minute Walk Functional Test Test Code" "6 Minute Walk Functional Test Test Code" ...
# $ CDISC Submission Value      : chr  "SIXMW1TC" "SIXMW101" "SIXMW102" "SIXMW103" ...
# $ CDISC Synonym(s)            : chr  "6 Minute Walk Functional Test Test Code" "SIXMW1-Distance at 1 Minute" "SIXMW1-Distance at 2 Minutes" "SIXMW1-Distance at 3 Minutes" ...
# $ CDISC Definition            : chr  "6 Minute Walk Test test code." "6 Minute Walk Test - Distance at 1 minute." "6 Minute Walk Test - Distance at 2 minutes." "6 Minute Walk Test - Distance at 3 minutes." ...
# $ NCI Preferred Term          : chr  "CDISC Functional Test 6MWT Test Code Terminology" "6MWT - Distance at 1 Minute" "6MWT - Distance at 2 Minutes" "6MWT - Distance at 3 Minutes" ...

Answer 2

From this issue on Github (# 278):

some functions to support more general inputs will be output from readr, after which readxl will be able to use this.

, URL- read_excel() (, ).

Answer 3

3 , , , , filed3a2827f129. `.xls`` , OpenOffice.org Calc, , 2.

So, I was wondering if, when pasting, this path to the read_excel file can open it. It will not open the original file name, but open the renamed file:

> p1<-read_excel( path ="/private/var/folders/yq/m3j1jqtj6hq6s5mq_v0jn3s80000gn/T/RtmpxfaZRt/filed3a2827f129.xls", sheet = 2)
DEFINEDNAME: 21 00 00 01 0b 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 0d 3b 00 00 00 00 a3 4e 00 00 07 00 
DEFINEDNAME: 21 00 00 01 0b 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 0d 3b 00 00 00 00 a3 4e 00 00 07 00 
DEFINEDNAME: 21 00 00 01 0b 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 0d 3b 00 00 00 00 a3 4e 00 00 07 00 
DEFINEDNAME: 21 00 00 01 0b 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 0d 3b 00 00 00 00 a3 4e 00 00 07 00 
> str(p1)
Classes ‘tbl_df’, ‘tbl’ and 'data.frame':   20131 obs. of  8 variables:
 $ Code                        : chr  "C115388" "C115800" "C115801" "C115802" ...
 $ Codelist Code               : chr  NA "C115388" "C115388" "C115388" ...
 $ Codelist Extensible (Yes/No): chr  "No" NA NA NA ...
 $ Codelist Name               : chr  "6 Minute Walk Functional Test Test Code" "6 Minute Walk Functional Test Test Code" "6 Minute Walk Functional Test Test Code" "6 Minute Walk Functional Test Test Code" ...
 $ CDISC Submission Value      : chr  "SIXMW1TC" "SIXMW101" "SIXMW102" "SIXMW103" ...
 $ CDISC Synonym(s)            : chr  "6 Minute Walk Functional Test Test Code" "SIXMW1-Distance at 1 Minute" "SIXMW1-Distance at 2 Minutes" "SIXMW1-Distance at 3 Minutes" ...
 $ CDISC Definition            : chr  "6 Minute Walk Test test code." "6 Minute Walk Test - Distance at 1 minute." "6 Minute Walk Test - Distance at 2 minutes." "6 Minute Walk Test - Distance at 3 minutes." ...
 $ NCI Preferred Term          : chr  "CDISC Functional Test 6MWT Test Code Terminology" "6MWT - Distance at 1 Minute" "6MWT - Distance at 2 Minutes" "6MWT - Distance at 3 Minutes" ...