vectorizing the forloop

R/get_daily_horoscope.R

@@ -28,38 +28,32 @@ getdailyhoroscope <- function(zodiacsign) {
 # helper function to get only one horoscope by webscrapping horoscope.com
 
 get_onedaily_horoscope <- function(page_number){
+  Sys.sleep(1)
 
   url <- paste0("https://www.horoscope.com/us/horoscopes/general/horoscope-general-daily-today.aspx?sign=", page_number)
   sign_link <- rvest::read_html(url)   # reading the url
 
   sign <- sign_link %>%  # getting the sign from the webpage
     rvest::html_node("h1") %>%
-    rvest::html_text(trim = TRUE)
-  sign <- stringr::str_replace_all(sign, "Horoscope", "") #trimming excess words
-  sign <- tolower(sign)
+    rvest::html_text(trim = TRUE) %>%
+    stringr::str_replace_all("Horoscope", "") %>% #trimming excess words
+    tolower() %>%
+    stringr::str_trim()
+
 
   daily_horoscope <- sign_link %>%        # reading in the daily horoscope
     rvest::html_node(".switcher+ p") %>%
     rvest::html_text(trim = TRUE)
 
-  horoscope_info <- data.frame(sign, daily_horoscope[1])   #putting into dataframe
+  horoscope_info <- data.frame(sign, daily_horoscope)   #putting into dataframe
   names(horoscope_info) <- c("sign","horoscope")
   return(horoscope_info) # return that sign
 }
 
 
-# Building data frame with all 12 zodiac signs and their respective daily horoscopes
-
-horoscope_data <- data.frame(sign = character(),
-                             horoscope = character(),
-                             stringsAsFactors = FALSE) #creating empty dataframe
-for (sign in 1:12){
-  horoscope_infor <- get_onedaily_horoscope(sign) #looping thru and getting each of 12 signs
+# Making data frame with the 12 zodiac signs and their respective daily horoscopes
+sign_numbers <- 1:12
+horoscope_list <- lapply(sign_numbers, get_onedaily_horoscope)  #using lapply for vectorization
+horoscope_data <- bind_rows(horoscope_list)  #combining all the data frames into one
 
-  horoscope_infor <- as.data.frame(lapply(horoscope_infor, stringr::str_trim),
-                                   stringsAsFactors = FALSE) # trimming whitespace
-
-  horoscope_data <- rbind(horoscope_data, horoscope_infor) #adding sign to dataframe
-
-  Sys.sleep(1) #adding a one second pause to not overload server
-}
+print(horoscope_data) #viewing final dataframe