dataRetrieval (version 1.4.0)

getNWISunitData: Raw Data Import for Instantaneous USGS NWIS Data

Description

Imports data from NWIS web service. This function gets the data from here: http://waterservices.usgs.gov/ A list of parameter codes can be found here: http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/pmcodes/ A list of statistic codes can be found here: http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/help/?read_file=stat&format=table

Usage

getNWISunitData(siteNumber, parameterCd, startDate, endDate, format = "xml",
  interactive = TRUE)

Arguments

siteNumber

string USGS site number. This is usually an 8 digit number

parameterCd

string USGS parameter code. This is usually an 5 digit number.

startDate

string starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.

endDate

string ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD.

format

string, can be "tsv" or "xml", and is only applicable for daily and unit value requests. "tsv" returns results faster, but there is a possiblitiy that an incomplete file is returned without warning. XML is slower, but will offer a warning if the file was incomplete (for example, if there was a momentary problem with the internet connection). It is possible to safely use the "tsv" option, but the user must carefully check the results to see if the data returns matches what is expected. The default is therefore "xml".

interactive

logical Option for interactive mode. If true, there is user interaction for error handling and data checks.

Value

data dataframe with agency, site, dateTime, time zone, value, and code columns

Examples

# NOT RUN {
siteNumber <- '05114000'
parameterCd <- '00060'
startDate <- "2014-10-10"
endDate <- "2014-10-10"
# These examples require an internet connection to run
rawData <- getNWISunitData(siteNumber,parameterCd,startDate,endDate)
summary(rawData)
rawData2 <- getNWISunitData(siteNumber,parameterCd,startDate,endDate,"tsv")
summary(rawData2)
# }