The `url()` function in R can be used to create a connection to a URL. The function takes a URL as input, and it returns a connection object that can be used to read from or write to the URL.
Once a connection object has been created, it can be used to read from the URL with the `readLines()` function. The `readLines()` function will read the lines of text from the URL and return them as a character vector.
Here is an example of how to use the `url()` and `readLines()` functions to read from a URL:
# Create a connection to the URL "https://www.jhu.edu"
con <- url("https://www.jhu.edu")
# Read the lines of text from the URL
lines <- readLines(con)
# Close the connection
close(con)
# Print the first few lines of text
head(lines)
This code will open the URL `https://www.jhu.edu` in read-only mode, read the lines of text from the URL, and then close the connection. The `lines` variable will contain a character vector with the lines of text from the URL.
The `url()` and `readLines()` functions are a powerful tool for reading from URLs in R. They can be used to read from any URL, including web pages, data files, and other resources.
