I'd like to know how to have GET from the httr package automatically handle parameter values that have a space in them.
When I paste this in my browser:
http://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/api/api_GET/?key=MYAPIKEY&commodity_desc=AG LAND&short_desc=AG LAND, IRRIGATED - ACRES&short_desc=AG LAND - ACRES&year__GE=2015&state_alpha=NC
the spaces are replaced with %20 and the data is obtained from the site. This is the url that the browser returns:
https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/api/api_GET/?key=MYAPIKEY&commodity_desc=AG%20LAND&short_desc=AG%20LAND,%20IRRIGATED%20-%20ACRES&short_desc=AG%20LAND%20-%20ACRES&year__GE=2015&state_alpha=NC
The parameters such as "AG LAND" in the object my_commodity_desc and "AG LAND, IRRIGATED - ACRES" in my_short_desc1 have spaces in them and I think that's the issue.
This is the code I'm running to get data from http://quickstats.nass.usda.gov:
# url
nass_url <- "http://quickstats.nass.usda.gov"
# commodity description of interest
my_commodity_desc <- "AG LAND"
# short description of interest (i.e., 'data item' on NASS Quick Stats website)
my_short_desc1 <- "AG LAND, IRRIGATED - ACRES"
my_short_desc2 <- "AG LAND - ACRES"
# query start year
my_year <- "2015"
# state of interest
my_state <- "NC"
# final path string
path_nc_irrig_land <- paste0("api/api_GET/?key=", NASS_API_KEY,
"&commodity_desc=", my_commodity_desc,
"&short_desc=", my_short_desc1,
"&short_desc=", my_short_desc2,
"&year__GE=", my_year,
"&state_alpha=", my_state)
# Run the query
raw_result_nc_irrig_land <- GET(url = nass_url, path = path_nc_irrig_land)
You can use base R's URLencode (from package utils), which does much the same thing that your browser does:
URLencode(path_nc_irrig_land)
#> [1] "api/api_GET/?key=myAPIKey&commodity_desc=AG%20LAND&short_desc=AG%20LAND,%20IRRIGATED%20-%20ACRES&short_desc=AG%20LAND%20-%20ACRES&year__GE=2015&state_alpha=NC"