README.md
In gerda: German Election Database (GERDA)

GERDA R Package

This package provides functions to access and work with GERDA datasets.

Note: This package is currently a work in progress. Comments and suggestions are welcome -- please send to hhilbig@ucdavis.edu.

You can install the development version of GERDA from GitHub using the devtools package:

# Install devtools if you haven't already
if (!requireNamespace("devtools", quietly = TRUE)) {
  install.packages("devtools")
}

# Install GERDA
devtools::install_github("hhilbig/gerda")

gerda_data_list(print_table = TRUE): Lists all available GERDA datasets along with their descriptions. Parameters:
print_table: If TRUE (default), prints a formatted table to the console and invisibly returns a tibble. If FALSE, directly returns the tibble without printing.
load_gerda_web(file_name, verbose = FALSE, file_format = "rds"): This function loads a GERDA dataset from a web source. It takes the following parameters:
file_name: The name of the dataset to load (see gerda_data_list() for available options).
verbose: If set to TRUE, it prints messages about the loading process (default is FALSE).
file_format: Specifies the format of the file to load, either "rds" or "csv" (default is "rds").

The function includes fuzzy matching for file names and will suggest close matches if an exact match isn't found.

# Load the package
library(gerda)

# List available datasets
available_data <- gerda_data_list()

# Load a dataset
data_municipal_harm <- load_gerda_web("municipal_harm", verbose = TRUE, file_format = "rds")

For a complete list of available datasets and their descriptions, use the gerda_data_list() function. This function either prints a formatted table to the console and invisibly returns a tibble or directly returns the tibble without printing.

As this package is a work in progress, we welcome feedback. Please send your comments to hhilbig@ucdavis.edu or open an issue on the GitHub repository.