get_cansim_vector: Retrieve data for a Statistics Canada data vector released...

In cansim: Accessing Statistics Canada Data Table and Vectors

Retrieve data for a Statistics Canada data vector released within a given time frame

Description

Allows for the retrieval of data for specified vector series for a given time window. Accessing data by vector allows for targeted extraction of time series. Discovering vectors of interest can be achieved using the StatCan table web interface or using get_cansim_table_template function to help pinpoint data series of interest, and then chaining the add_cansim_vectors_to_template function to add cansim vector information to the template data. The StatCan API can only process 300 coordinates at a time, if more than 300 coordinates are specified the function will batch the requests to the API.

Usage

get_cansim_vector(
  vectors,
  start_time = as.Date("1800-01-01"),
  end_time = Sys.time(),
  use_ref_date = TRUE,
  language = "english",
  refresh = FALSE,
  timeout = 200,
  factors = TRUE,
  default_month = "07",
  default_day = "01"
)

Arguments

vectors	The list of vectors to retrieve
start_time	Starting date in YYYY-MM-DD format, applies to REF_DATE or releaseTime, depending on use_ref_date parameter
end_time	Set an optional end time filter in YYYY-MM-DD format (defaults to current system time)
use_ref_date	Optional, TRUE by default. When set to TRUE, uses REF_DATE of vector data to filter, otherwise it uses StatisticsCanada's releaseDate value for filtering the specified vectors.
language	"english" (the default) or "french". Short forms such as "en", "eng", "fr" or "fra" are accepted, as are the French names "anglais" and "francais"; case and accents are ignored
refresh	(Optional) When set to TRUE, forces a reload of data table (default is FALSE)
timeout	(Optional) Number of seconds StatCan is allowed to go without sending data before the download is abandoned, to work around scenarios where StatCan servers drop the network connection. This does not limit how long a download may take overall, a transfer that keeps delivering data is left alone. StatCan prepares a whole response before sending any of it, which for large requests can take the better part of a minute, so values much below the default of 200 risk cutting off legitimate requests.
factors	(Optional) Logical value indicating if dimensions should be converted to factors. (Default set to TRUE).
default_month	The default month that should be used when creating Date objects for annual data (default set to "07")
default_day	The default day of the month that should be used when creating Date objects for monthly data (default set to "01")

Value

A tibble with data for vectors released between start and end time

Returns NULL if the data could not be retrieved because StatCan is unavailable.

Examples

get_cansim_vector("v41690973","2015-01-01")

cansim documentation built on Aug. 20, 2026, 1:07 a.m.