[acs-r] acs.R version 1.2: Now, with 2012 data

Mon Feb 3 17:09:41 EST 2014

The acs.R package is limited to data available via the API, listed
here: <http://www.census.gov/developers/data/>.  In short, right now
it's only the 5-year survey ending in 2010, 2011, 2012.  

In addition, the package can only deal with the "Summary File"
variables -- not the "Data Profiles," which are really in a different
format -- more like short reports than summary tables.

In the future, I expect that the census will add the 1- and 3-year
summary files to the API, at which point the package will be able
fetch those as well.

--Ezra

At Sat, 1 Feb 2014 22:33:42 -0800, M Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
> 
> My initial goal for pdxcensusdata was to provide a 'decoder ring' for
> Census data for local journalists. The initial test case was going to
> be languages spoken at home, since the transportation planners here
> need that for signage and the mobile apps. And I'm personally
> interested in the Gini coefficient measures of inequality.
> 
> I'm pretty sure the acs.R package only accesses 2010, 2011 and 2012 as
> "end years", with a length parameter of 1, 3 or 5 years.
> 
> On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 10:25 PM,  <arilamstein at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Ed,
> >
> > The pdxcensusdata project looks very interesting, but I still have the same
> > question - which years are accessible with the current version of acs.R?
> >
> > You are (mostly) correct about the limitations of the current version of
> > choroplethr.  But in addition to state and county level data, it also
> > renders ZCTA (Zip Code Tabulated Area) level data.  Although I had trouble
> > working with the ZCTA shapefile that the census releases, so I just render
> > each ZIP as a colored dot, centered at the longitude and latitude of the
> > ZIP.  At that point its no longer a proper choropleth (because it lacks a
> > border), but I still thought it was worth including in the project.
> >
> > I spoke with Ramnath briefly as well about using rCharts for rendering
> > choropleths, but I haven't had a chance to follow up with him yet.  Please
> > send along any interesting results you get.  I think that choropleths are
> > going to benefit a lot from the recent advances in interactive graphics.
> >
> > Ari
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 7:24 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky <znmeb at znmeb.net>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> I have a script that will extract table code names and their
> >> definitions into CSV files so one can browse, rather than doing a
> >> lookup via acs.r lookup functions. See
> >> https://github.com/znmeb/pdxcensusdata/tree/master/csv. However, this
> >> only covers 2012, 2011 and 2010, not earlier data. I suspect if there
> >> are XML files on the Census Bureau site equivalent to the ones in
> >> acs.r I could hack up the scripts to use them without much trouble if
> >> you have a use for this.
> >>
> >> As far as I can tell, choropleth.R only goes down to the county level,
> >> not census tract, block group or block. I'm also talking to Ramnath
> >> Vaidyanathan of rCharts (http://ramnathv.github.io/rCharts/) about
> >> making Census choropleth maps using Leaflet.js, which will rended
> >> automagically on Github Pages. I'm going to try to hack something up
> >> for that this week in the above-linked project.
> >>
> >> On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 7:13 PM,  <arilamstein at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Hi Ezra,
> >> >
> >> > Thanks for including this update.  I'm having a tough time figuring out
> >> > what
> >> > data is available via acs.R.  From what you've said before, I gather
> >> > that
> >> > it's "whatever is available via the Census API".  But that is also not
> >> > clear
> >> > to me.  For example, I found this page on the census website, which I
> >> > think
> >> > lists all ACS ever conducted:
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/help/jsf/pages/metadata.xhtml?lang=en&type=survey&id=survey.en.ACS_ACS
> >> >
> >> > But when I tried to get the 2005 or 2007 ACS I get an error message and
> >> > lots
> >> > of warnings.  Do you have any documentation of what data your package
> >> > supports retrieving?
> >> >
> >> > I am interested in making animated gifs where each frame is a choropleth
> >> > of
> >> > some demographic measurement at a particular year.  Right now that's
> >> > difficult because I'm just going hit or miss thru the list, and it seems
> >> > to
> >> > be a lot of misses.
> >> >
> >> > Also, in version 1.0 of choroplethr I am just using the 2011 (default)
> >> > ACS.
> >> > In subsequent versions I would like users to use whatever (year, span)
> >> > combinations acs.R supports.  I would also like to distribute a list of
> >> > available data with my code, but right now I don't have one.
> >> >
> >> > Thanks.
> >> >
> >> > Ari
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 5:30 PM, Ezra Haber Glenn <eglenn at mit.edu>
> >> > wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> Dear acs.R folks:
> >> >>
> >> >> As some of you have noticed, the new five-year Census ACS data has
> >> >> just come out (see <http://www.census.gov/developers/data/>), and is
> >> >> now available via the Census API. To make sure you are able to fetch
> >> >> the freshest possible data to play with in R, I’ve updated the acs.R
> >> >> package to version 1.2, which now includes full support for the
> >> >> 2008–2012 ACS data.
> >> >>
> >> >> The latest version is now available on the CRAN repository -- see
> >> >> <http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/acs/index.html>. If you’ve
> >> >> already installed the package in the past, you can easily update with
> >> >> the update.packages() command; if you’ve never installed it, you can
> >> >> just as easily install it for the first time, by simply typing
> >> >> install.packages(“acs”). In either case, be sure to load the library
> >> >> after installing by typing library(acs), and install (or re-install)
> >> >> an API key with api.key.install() — see the documentation and the
> >> >> latest version of the acs user guide for more info.
> >> >>
> >> >> To get the latest data, just continue to use the acs.fetch() function
> >> >> as usual, but specify endyear=2012. (By default, endyear is set to
> >> >> 2011 if no year is explicitly passed to acs.fetch, and I didn’t want
> >> >> to change this for fear of breaking existing user scripts. In the
> >> >> future, we might to rethink this, so that it selects the most recent
> >> >> endyear by default. Thoughts?)
> >> >>
> >> >> (Note: It might take a day or two for the updates to percolate through
> >> >> the CRAN system.  If you update and you’re not sure which version you
> >> >> are using, you can always type packageVersion(“acs”) to find out.)
> >> >> --
> >> >> Ezra Haber Glenn, AICP
> >> >> Department of Urban Studies and Planning
> >> >> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> >> >> 77 Massachusetts Ave., Room 7-337
> >> >> Cambridge, MA 02139
> >> >> eglenn at mit.edu
> >> >> http://dusp.mit.edu/faculty/ezra-glenn |
> >> >> http://eglenn.scripts.mit.edu/citystate/
> >> >> 617.253.2024 (w)
> >> >> 617.721.7131 (c)
> >> >>
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> acs-r mailing list
> >> >> acs-r at mit.edu
> >> >> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/acs-r
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > _______________________________________________
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> >> > acs-r at mit.edu
> >> > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/acs-r
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Twitter: http://twitter.com/znmeb; Computational Journalism on a Stick
> >> http://j.mp/CompJournoStickOverview
> >>
> >> My poltergeist can beat up your zeitgeist.
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/znmeb; Computational Journalism on a Stick
> http://j.mp/CompJournoStickOverview
> 
> My poltergeist can beat up your zeitgeist.

--
Ezra Haber Glenn, AICP
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave., Room 7-337
Cambridge, MA 02139
eglenn at mit.edu 
http://dusp.mit.edu/faculty/ezra-glenn | http://eglenn.scripts.mit.edu/citystate/
617.253.2024 (w)
617.721.7131 (c)