censusapi v0.9.0

censusapi v0.9.0

CRAN release: 2025-03-05

Breaking changes

• Increases required version of R from >=3.0 to >=3.5 (released in 2018) based on httr dependency.

New features

API keys

• getCensus() no longer requires key, the use of a Census Bureau API key. Users are still encouraged to register for and use an API key because the Census Bureau may rate limit IP addresses, but it is not required. (#87)
• New get_api_key() helper function retrieves the value of a user's stored Census Bureau API key from a saved environment variable or provides a warning message if none is found.
• New has_api_key() helper function detects if there is a stored Census Bureau API key in the Renviron, intended mainly for internal use.

Variable typing

• getCensus() uses improved logic to automatically convert columns that contain all numbers to numeric, unless the column name is in a specific list of geography names or other string type columns. Use convert_variables = FALSE to leave all columns as characters.

Metadata

• listCensusApis() now has optional name and vintage parameters to get metadata for a subset of datasets or a single dataset. (#103)

# Get metadata for all 2020 Decennial Census datasets
apis_decennial_2020 <- listCensusApis(name = "dec", vintage = 2020)

# Get metadata for all timeseries datasets
apis_timeseries <- listCensusApis(name = "timeseries")

Documentation

• Function documentation is improved and better formatted.
• Examples are updated to use newly released datasets.
• A new online frequently asked questions article improves documentation.
• A new vignette included in the package build directs users to the website to read web-only articles.

censusapi v0.7.0

• Adds show_call option to getCensus(), which shows the underlying API call (otherwise only shown on errors) and link to package documentation when used.
• Converts improperly formatted string “N/A” and “NULL” values from underlying Census data to true NA values.
• Improves parsing of columns as numeric or character, specifically:
  • Keeps 2017 NAICS variables as characters, instead of erroneously converting to numeric.
  • Parses endpoint numeric variables with all-character variable names as numeric for several popular endpoints: SAHIE, SAIPE, ZBP, CBP, PEP and Decennial Response Rates.
• Removes examples from deprecated 1990 and 2000 Decennial endpoints.

censusapi v0.6.0

• Allows the use of miscellaneous paramaters in getCensus(). This allows users to specify any valid API argument name and pass it a value, giving full access to all of the underlying Census Bureau APIs.
• Adds a group parameter in listCensusMetadata(). This allows users to get variable metadata for a specified variable group.
• Improves internal logic in listCensusMetadata().
• Add documentation and examples using miscellaneous paramaters.
• Returns underlying API call in error messages, particularly useful for users needing from the Census Bureau.
• Specifies tract in block group example due to underlying API changes.
• Adds Contributor Code of Conduct.

censusapi v0.3.0

• Does not convert ACS annotation flag variables into numeric columns.
• Puts lowercase variable name columns first (geographies), rather than all non-numeric columns.
• Changes all punctuation in returned column names into underscores, removing repeated underscores and trailing punctuation.
• Uses consistent spacing in examples.
• Updates examples using ACS data to latest year using new acs/acs5 endpoint and adds variable group examples.

censusapi 0.2

First CRAN release, available at https://cran.r-project.org/package=censusapi