Automate zip file reading in R

I found this thread as I was trying to automate reading multiple csv files from a zip. I adapted the solution to the broader case. I haven't tested it for weird filenames or the like, but this is what worked for me so I thought I'd share:

read.csv.zip <- function(zipfile, ...) {
# Create a name for the dir where we'll unzip
zipdir <- tempfile()
# Create the dir using that name
dir.create(zipdir)
# Unzip the file into the dir
unzip(zipfile, exdir=zipdir)
# Get a list of csv files in the dir
files <- list.files(zipdir)
files <- files[grep("\\.csv$", files)]
# Create a list of the imported csv files
csv.data <- sapply(files, function(f) {
    fp <- file.path(zipdir, f)
    return(read.csv(fp, ...))
})
return(csv.data)}

You can use unzip to unzip the file. I just mention this as it is not clear from your question whether you knew that. In regard to reading the file. Once your extracted the file to a temporary dir (?tempdir), just use list.files to find the files that where dumped into the temporary directory. In your case this is just one file, the file you need. Reading it using read.csv is then quite straightforward:

l = list.files(temp_path)
read.csv(l[1])

assuming your tempdir location is stored in temp_path.

Another solution using unz:

read.zip <- function(file, ...) {
  zipFileInfo <- unzip(file, list=TRUE)
  if(nrow(zipFileInfo) > 1)
    stop("More than one data file inside zip")
  else
    read.csv(unz(file, as.character(zipFileInfo$Name)), ...)
}