Revision history [back]

There are several measures that can be taken to avoid obtaining character(0) while using rvest for web scraping:

1. Check the URL: Ensure that the URL is correct and corresponds to the desired webpage. This is important as a wrong URL can lead to character(0) being returned.

2. Check the CSS Selector: The CSS Selector should be specific enough to select the desired content from the webpage. A wrong CSS Selector can also return character(0) or the wrong content.

3. Check the Webpage Source Code: Inspect the webpage source code to ensure that the content to be scraped is present in the HTML. It may be the case that the content is not present, which can result in character(0) being returned.

4. Use appropriate HTML tags: Use the appropriate HTML tags in the CSS Selector to select the desired content. For example, if the content is in a table, use the appropriate table tag to select the content.

5. Use tryCatch() function: Use the tryCatch() function to catch errors that are encountered while web scraping. This can help in identifying the cause of character(0) being returned.

6. Use user-agent: Set a user-agent for the web scraping session using the useragent argument in the htmlsession() function. This can help prevent character(0) from being returned by some websites.

7. Use header: Add headers to the GET request to make it look more like a request from a web browser, including information about the software and system of the request originator.