All you need is a Twitter account (user name and password) and you can be up in running in minutes!

Source: rtweet README

1 Introduction

Load packages:

# install.packages('rtweet')

library(rtweet)
library(tidyverse)

Documentation and resources:

2 `rtweet` package

What is the rtweet package?

R package for interacting with Twitter’s API
An API (application programming interface) is a computing interface which defines interactions between multiple software intermediaries (e.g., the kinds of calls or requests that can be made)
We can use it to make requests to Twitter’s API and request data

How to get started:

Create a Twitter account if you don’t have one already
Load the rtweet package
In your console (i.e., an interactive session of R), make a request to Twitter’s API using one of rtweet’s functions (e.g., search_tweets())

A browser window should pop up, prompting you to log in your Twitter account and authorize the rstats2twitter app

> tweets <- search_tweets('#ucla')

Requesting token on behalf of user...
Waiting for authentication in browser...
Press Esc/Ctrl + C to abort

3 `search_tweets()` function

Description:

search_tweets() is a function from the rtweet package that returns Twitter statuses matching a user-provided search query.

Usage:

?search_tweets

# SYNTAX AND DEFAULT VALUES
search_tweets(
  q,
  n = 100,
  type = "recent",
  include_rts = TRUE,
  geocode = NULL,
  max_id = NULL,
  parse = TRUE,
  token = NULL,
  retryonratelimit = FALSE,
  verbose = TRUE,
  ...
)

Arguments:

q: query to be searched (same as if you searched here)
- Use OR to search for tweets containing either search terms (e.g., data OR science)
- Use from: to search for tweets from certain handles (e.g., from:UCLA)
- Use filter: to only include certain kinds of tweets (e.g., filter:verified)
- Use -filter: to exclude certain kinds of tweets (e.g., -filter:replies)
n: total number of tweets to return
include_rts: whether or not to include retweets in search results
etc.

4 Example

Request data:

We will use rtweet to pull Twitter data from the PAC-12 universities. We will use the university admissions Twitter handle if there is one, or the main Twitter handle for the university if there isn’t one:

# PAC-12 university handles
p12 <- c('uaadmissions', 'FutureSunDevils', 'caladmissions', 'UCLAAdmission',
         'futurebuffs', 'uoregon', 'BeaverVIP', 'USCAdmission',
         'engagestanford', 'UtahAdmissions', 'UW', 'WSUPullman')

# Use `OR` to search for tweets containing any of the handles
my_query <- paste0('from:', p12, collapse = ' OR ')
my_query

[1] "from:uaadmissions OR from:FutureSunDevils OR from:caladmissions OR from:UCLAAdmission OR from:futurebuffs OR from:uoregon OR from:BeaverVIP OR from:USCAdmission OR from:engagestanford OR from:UtahAdmissions OR from:UW OR from:WSUPullman"

# Request Twitter data
p12_df_2 <- search_tweets(my_query, n = 500)

Analyze data:

search_tweets() conveniently returns the data in a dataframe, so it’s ready for you to perform data manipulations!

# Inspect dataframe
str(p12_df, max.level = 1, strict.width = 'cut')

Classes 'tbl_df', 'tbl' and 'data.frame':   328 obs. of  90 variables:
 $ user_id                : chr  "22080148" "22080148" "22080148" "22080"..
 $ status_id              : chr  "1254177694599675904" "1253431405993840"..
 $ created_at             : POSIXct, format: "2020-04-25 22:37:18" "2020"..
 $ screen_name            : chr  "WSUPullman" "WSUPullman" "WSUPullman" "..
 $ text                   : chr  "Big Dez is headed to Indy!\n\n#GoCougs"..
 $ source                 : chr  "Twitter for iPhone" "Twitter Web App" "..
 $ display_text_width     : num  125 58 246 83 56 64 156 271 69 140 ...
 $ reply_to_status_id     : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ reply_to_user_id       : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ reply_to_screen_name   : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ is_quote               : logi  FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE ...
 $ is_retweet             : logi  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE ...
 $ favorite_count         : int  0 322 30 55 186 53 22 44 11 0 ...
 $ retweet_count          : int  230 32 1 5 0 3 2 6 2 6 ...
 $ quote_count            : int  NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
 $ reply_count            : int  NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
 $ hashtags               :List of 328
 $ symbols                :List of 328
 $ urls_url               :List of 328
 $ urls_t.co              :List of 328
 $ urls_expanded_url      :List of 328
 $ media_url              :List of 328
 $ media_t.co             :List of 328
 $ media_expanded_url     :List of 328
 $ media_type             :List of 328
 $ ext_media_url          :List of 328
 $ ext_media_t.co         :List of 328
 $ ext_media_expanded_url :List of 328
 $ ext_media_type         : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ mentions_user_id       :List of 328
 $ mentions_screen_name   :List of 328
 $ lang                   : chr  "en" "en" "en" "en" ...
 $ quoted_status_id       : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_text            : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_created_at      : POSIXct, format: NA NA ...
 $ quoted_source          : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_favorite_count  : int  NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_retweet_count   : int  NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_user_id         : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_screen_name     : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_name            : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_followers_count : int  NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_friends_count   : int  NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_statuses_count  : int  NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_location        : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_description     : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ quoted_verified        : logi  NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
 $ retweet_status_id      : chr  "1254159118996127746" NA NA NA ...
 $ retweet_text           : chr  "Big Dez is headed to Indy!\n\n#GoCougs"..
 $ retweet_created_at     : POSIXct, format: "2020-04-25 21:23:29" NA ...
 $ retweet_source         : chr  "Twitter for iPhone" NA NA NA ...
 $ retweet_favorite_count : int  1402 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 26 ...
 $ retweet_retweet_count  : int  230 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 6 ...
 $ retweet_user_id        : chr  "1250265324" NA NA NA ...
 $ retweet_screen_name    : chr  "WSUCougarFB" NA NA NA ...
 $ retweet_name           : chr  "Washington State Football" NA NA NA ...
 $ retweet_followers_count: int  77527 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 996 ...
 $ retweet_friends_count  : int  1448 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 316 ...
 $ retweet_statuses_count : int  15363 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 1666 ...
 $ retweet_location       : chr  "Pullman, WA" NA NA NA ...
 $ retweet_description    : chr  "Official Twitter home of Washington St"..
 $ retweet_verified       : logi  TRUE NA NA NA NA NA ...
 $ place_url              : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ place_name             : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ place_full_name        : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ place_type             : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ country                : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ country_code           : chr  NA NA NA NA ...
 $ geo_coords             :List of 328
 $ coords_coords          :List of 328
 $ bbox_coords            :List of 328
 $ status_url             : chr  "https://twitter.com/WSUPullman/status/"..
 $ name                   : chr  "WSU Pullman" "WSU Pullman" "WSU Pullma"..
 $ location               : chr  "Pullman, Washington USA" "Pullman, Was"..
 $ description            : chr  "We are an award-winning research unive"..
 $ url                    : chr  "http://t.co/VxKZH9BuMS" "http://t.co/V"..
 $ protected              : logi  FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE ...
 $ followers_count        : int  43914 43914 43914 43914 43914 43914 4391..
 $ friends_count          : int  9717 9717 9717 9717 9717 9717 9717 9717 ..
 $ listed_count           : int  556 556 556 556 556 556 556 556 556 556 ..
 $ statuses_count         : int  15234 15234 15234 15234 15234 15234 1523..
 $ favourites_count       : int  20124 20124 20124 20124 20124 20124 2012..
 $ account_created_at     : POSIXct, format: "2009-02-26 23:39:34" "2009"..
 $ verified               : logi  TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE ...
 $ profile_url            : chr  "http://t.co/VxKZH9BuMS" "http://t.co/V"..
 $ profile_expanded_url   : chr  "http://www.wsu.edu" "http://www.wsu.ed"..
 $ account_lang           : logi  NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
 $ profile_banner_url     : chr  "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_banners/"..
 $ profile_background_url : chr  "http://abs.twimg.com/images/themes/the"..
 $ profile_image_url      : chr  "http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/57"..

# Select certain variables
df <- p12_df %>% select('user_id', 'created_at', 'screen_name', 'text', 'location')
head(df)

# A tibble: 6 x 5
  user_id  created_at          screen_name text                 location   
  <chr>    <dttm>              <chr>       <chr>                <chr>      
1 22080148 2020-04-25 22:37:18 WSUPullman  "Big Dez is headed … Pullman, W…
2 22080148 2020-04-23 21:11:49 WSUPullman  Cougar Cheese. That… Pullman, W…
3 22080148 2020-04-21 04:00:00 WSUPullman  "Darien McLaughlin … Pullman, W…
4 22080148 2020-04-24 03:00:00 WSUPullman  6 houses, one pick.… Pullman, W…
5 22080148 2020-04-20 19:00:21 WSUPullman  Why did you choose … Pullman, W…
6 22080148 2020-04-20 02:20:01 WSUPullman  Tell us one of your… Pullman, W…

# Filter and sort variables
df %>% filter(screen_name == 'UCLAAdmission') %>% arrange(created_at)

# A tibble: 6 x 5
  user_id  created_at          screen_name  text                  location 
  <chr>    <dttm>              <chr>        <chr>                 <chr>    
1 2938776… 2020-04-22 01:45:02 UCLAAdmissi… Study abroad is one … Los Ange…
2 2938776… 2020-04-23 02:00:14 UCLAAdmissi… How do you know what… Los Ange…
3 2938776… 2020-04-24 02:11:51 UCLAAdmissi… A big benefit to liv… Los Ange…
4 2938776… 2020-04-25 00:05:59 UCLAAdmissi… Admission decisions … Los Ange…
5 2938776… 2020-04-25 00:29:12 UCLAAdmissi… Loving the Bruin fam… Los Ange…
6 2938776… 2020-04-25 00:34:47 UCLAAdmissi… @Ercramzep Congratul… Los Ange…

# Aggregate data
df %>% group_by(screen_name) %>% count() %>% arrange(desc(n))

# A tibble: 11 x 2
   screen_name         n
   <chr>           <int>
 1 CalAdmissions      85
 2 uoregon            61
 3 FutureSunDevils    51
 4 UW                 49
 5 WSUPullman         22
 6 uaadmissions       20
 7 UtahAdmissions     20
 8 UCLAAdmission       6
 9 USCAdmission        6
10 futurebuffs         5
11 BeaverVIP           3

Introduction to rtweet package

1 Introduction

2 rtweet package

3 search_tweets() function

4 Example

Introduction to `rtweet` package

2 `rtweet` package

3 `search_tweets()` function