this file
http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/data/anes_mergedfile_1992to1997/anes_mergedfile_1992to1997_dta.zip can be downloaded after free registration on this page http://electionstudies.org/studypages/download/registration_form.php imports properly in windows R x64 3.0.1 but causes R x64 3.0.2 to crash the crash occurs at the line rval <- .External(do_readStata, file) at the bottom of this e-mail, i have included code that will reproduce the problem exactly in 3.0.2 but not 3.0.1 and if i don't load the memisc and Hmisc packages, i get an error instead of a crash.. > x <- read.dta( fp , convert.factors = FALSE ) Error in read.dta(fp, convert.factors = FALSE) : Value of SET_STRING_ELT() must be a 'CHARSXP' not a 'NULL' ..but if i load both (as shown in the script below), R just dies. ================= sessionInfo for 3.0.1 (the version that works) > sessionInfo() R version 3.0.1 (2013-05-16) Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit) locale: [1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252 LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252 LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252 LC_NUMERIC=C [5] LC_TIME=English_United States.1252 attached base packages: [1] grid splines stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base other attached packages: [1] memisc_0.96-6 MASS_7.3-26 lattice_0.20-15 Hmisc_3.12-2 Formula_1.1-1 survival_2.37-4 httr_0.2 stringr_0.6.2 foreign_0.8-53 loaded via a namespace (and not attached): [1] cluster_1.14.4 digest_0.6.3 RCurl_1.95-4.1 rpart_4.1-1 tools_3.0.1 ================= sessionInfo in 3.0.2 right before the crash -- > sessionInfo() R version 3.0.2 (2013-09-25) Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit) locale: [1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252 [2] LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252 [3] LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252 [4] LC_NUMERIC=C [5] LC_TIME=English_United States.1252 attached base packages: [1] grid splines stats graphics grDevices utils datasets [8] methods base other attached packages: [1] memisc_0.96-6 MASS_7.3-29 lattice_0.20-23 Hmisc_3.12-2 [5] Formula_1.1-1 survival_2.37-4 httr_0.2 stringr_0.6.2 [9] foreign_0.8-55 loaded via a namespace (and not attached): [1] cluster_1.14.4 digest_0.6.3 RCurl_1.95-4.1 rpart_4.1-3 tools_3.0.2 ================= # code that works in 3.0.1 and crashes in 3.0.2 -- setwd( "C:/my directory/anes") your.username <- "em...@address.com" your.password <- "your.password" require(foreign) # load foreign package (converts data files into R) require(stringr) # load stringr package (manipulates character strings easily) require(httr) # load httr package (downloads files from the web, with SSL and cookies) require(Hmisc) # load Hmisc package (loads spss.get function) require(memisc) # load memisc package (loads spss portable table import functions) # construct a list containing the pre-specified login information values <- list( "email" = your.username , "pass" = your.password ) # contact the anes website to log in POST( "http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/download/login-process.php" , body = values ) # download the `all_datasets` page to figure out what needs to be downloaded z <- GET( " http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/download/datacenter_all_datasets.php" ) # create a temporary file and a temporary directory tf <- tempfile() ; td <- tempdir() # download the damn file z <- GET( " http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/data/anes_mergedfile_1992to1997/anes_mergedfile_1992to1997_dta.zip" ) # save the result to a temporary file on the local disk writeBin( z$content , tf ) # unzip that temporary file to an equally-temporary directory z <- unzip( tf , exdir = td ) # find which one it is from among everything zipped up together.. fp <- z[ grep( 'dta' , z ) ] # ..import that puppy x <- read.dta( fp , convert.factors = FALSE ) # crash. [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.