[R] how can I import op.gz files with read.csv or otherwise

[John Kane]

Try downloading it and decompress it:

  url <- "ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/gsod/2012/285880-99999-2012.op.gz"
  dest <- "/home/john/rdata/weather.op.gz"
  download.file(url, dest) 

However it does not look like a nicely formatted file and you may have to do some cleanup in a text editior or perhaps load it into a spreadsheet before you read it into R.  

I tried the method from the link arun provided and it did not work.  It looks like the headers and data are not consistant
John Kane
Kingston ON Canada


> -----Original Message-----
> From: herrdittmann at yahoo.co.uk
> Sent: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:51:05 +0000 (GMT)
> To: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: [R] how can I import op.gz files with read.csv or otherwise
> 
> Dear R-users,
> 
> I am struggling to directly read an "op.gz" file into R. NOAA kindly
> provides daily weather data on their FTP server for download.
> 
> 
>> sessionInfo()
> R version 2.15.1 (2012-06-22)
> Platform: x86_64-pc-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
> locale:
> [1] LC_COLLATE=English_United Kingdom.1252B  LC_CTYPE=English_United
> Kingdom.1252B B B  LC_MONETARY=English_United Kingdom.1252
> [4] LC_NUMERIC=CB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> LC_TIME=English_United Kingdom.1252B B  B
> attached base packages:
> [1] statsB B B B  graphicsB  grDevices utilsB B B B  datasetsB  methodsB
> B  baseB B B  B
> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
> [1] tools_2.15.1
> 
> Here is the data set in question:
> x <-
read.csv(file="ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/gsod/2012/285880-99999-2012.op.gz",
> skip = 1, sep = "")
> 
> and "structure" returns some incomprehensible gibberish:
> 
>> str(x)
> 'data.frame':B B  70 obs. ofB  6 variables:
> B $ X4C tYd...C?C?8.C%WD...C+C<.C/C?.X.QTC1VP..B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B  : Factor w/
> 70 levels "\005~4C(dE?C?C-E\031y\020C?C-B:\035JC+C/C?IK?C?C-\021b?
> BC?C?R{E>Ykv\035`b??C,B0a\017Z\021C?sPb??eC?hC?C?""| __truncated__,..: 44
> 13 56 64 28 23 67 3 2 33 ...
> B $ X.C6oMC=C?T..C?B:_...C?C-gC?7.C"..TC>.C<C?.B*...5C?J...E>C-C?j.QC
> ..C#.eC?F?C?GmC2C=C'B:g..a...C?C&.J..C?.C#sC'.C*E .C;.C
> klsUDC?.E ..C"U...u1.zC?.WC?..x...3._..E.C2.C
> ZD.C/oC?C?.dvC&....C2k.C.y...8h: Factor w/ 41 levels
"","\025C'\016\vC?B2i;B'4F?C1\002\001Pb??C!\0025B6b?"C"C?{C?C?b?"B9=C?B$4&C0w\\\\QB-B4b?:B-C?B4\"hnC?b?"b?0IB(C?E
> b*B*E!\035b\b>6C?C?$W!C?C?R=B(\022b??PqK?[B;j\004$TC?b?"3B2*C?B1%C
> B-Nb??b?:\"| __truncated__,..: 1 1 1 39 1 1 1 8 1 5 ...
> B $ X.iE?.yC?C;..C=2.h..C;C
> 7.C#J.3k..jLm...Q..uYC?JC$.K.zkU.8.C6C?..Y.7.3...C<C
> C.A.C
> .3C;C?..Z..5...C"E!.B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B  : Factor w/ 29 levels "","\001qC?^+nC*1",..: 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 14 1 6
> ...
> B $ X.C.Fd.m.E ..v.B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> : Factor w/ 17 levels "","B B4SL\aE!C?C?B0\035d)b??B<$C-ZC?B<C2B6C.C?JC
> b??C$C>b? B6C%\006%5l[b??B<E!\025a\024C1C/+gT+3",..: 1 1 1 16 1 1 1 1 1 1
> ...
> B $ C?A..E.E8JkEZ.C?C
> .C!.C+.......E?.z..C?.z..E?..C2C?.C?C?C#g.C6B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
> B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B  : Factor w/ 8 levels
> "","\001S\177B?\017iSC?C?iC?C?#\017\"UgC?:iB4C-\016pC?\031UC?C)D""|
> __truncated__,..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
> B $ X..oC0C'nPC?oC?WC5j.C)C?..B..C?C?C+.QC*C9...C8B B B B  B
> 
> 
> While I can manually open and read the op.gz file in a text editor,
> read.csv() or read.table() the imported file is simply unreadable.
> 
> How can I best get the job done? Any pointers, suggestions, ideas most
> welcome!!
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> Bernd
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
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