Problems Reading in Data from a Website

Hello, I am working on a project that will read in data that is updated daily from this site: https://covid19.who.int/WHO-COVID-19-global-data.csv.

The intention is to build an R Shiny App that will read in the data each time the app loads and have the charts/tables refreshed with the most recent data.

Here is the code I've used so far:

covid19 <- read.csv("https://covid19.who.int/WHO-COVID-19-global-data.csv")

I have a series of issues each time I try loading this line. One of the following things happens:

1.) The file loads, but there are fewer rows than expected.
2.) I get an error message that reads:

Error in type.convert.default(data[[i]], as.is = as.is[i], dec = dec,  : 
  invalid multibyte string at '<a2>/'
In addition: Warning messages:
1: Not a validObject(): no slot of name "meta" for this object of class "dfm" 
2: Not a validObject(): no slot of name "meta" for this object of class "dfm" 
3: In scan(file = file, what = what, sep = sep, quote = quote, dec = dec,  :
  embedded nul(s) found in input

3.) I get an error message overlayed on top of the entire program that reads, "R Session Aborted. R encountered a fatal error. The session was terminated." There's also a picture of a bomb.

Does anyone know how I can resolve this issue? I just want to be able to read in the full amount of data. Any help would be appreciated!

skipNul = TRUE
Is worth a try

1 Like

I actually just updated my version of R and that seemed to solve the issue. Thank you!

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