NEWS.md

In ipumsr: An R Interface for Downloading, Reading, and Handling IPUMS Data

ipumsr 0.7.0

Function retirements

• ipumsr no longer suggests raster, rgdal, and sp (#23). Removing these dependencies requires the retirement of several previously deprecated functions:

• All read_terra_*() functions

• read_ipums_sp() (use read_ipums_sf() to load spatial data in sf format)
• read_ipums_codebook() (use read_nhgis_codebook() to load an NHGIS codebook)
• ipums_list_*() helper functions (instead, use ipums_list_files())
• read_nhgis_sf() and read_nhgis_sp() (instead, use read_ipums_sf() and read_nhgis() to load spatial and tabular data separately, then join with an ipums_shape_join_*() function)

Other updates

• Fixes bug in ipums_view() where content would not display properly in viewer pane (#19)

• RStudio is now explicitly required to launch files in the viewer pane using ipums_view(). R console users can still generate stand-alone HTML files that can be viewed in a different browser.

• Updates the UI and fixes various bugs in ipums_website() (#54):

• Accepted project names are now consistent with those provided in ipums_ddi objects. Shorthand project names as used by the IPUMS API are also accepted.

• Users can now use the same syntax regardless of whether providing an ipums_ddi object or a project name. The project argument has been deprecated.
• MacOS is now supported
• The var argument is no longer required. Omitting var will launch the URL to the homepage for the specified IPUMS project.
• The homepage_if_missing argument now defaults to FALSE.

• The var_label argument has been deprecated

• Updates IPUMS projects listed in ipums_data_collections().

• Various documentation updates

ipumsr 0.6.3

• The ability to read an IPUMS DDI file contained within a zip archive using read_ipums_ddi() has been deprecated. Users must now load DDI files by providing the direct path to the uncompressed .xml file.

This resolves an inconsistency between the behavior of read_ipums_micro_*() functions when provided a DDI file path as compared to an ipums_ddi object created with read_ipums_ddi().

• The ability to read IPUMS files by providing the path to their containing directory has been deprecated. This affects:

• read_nhgis()

• read_ipums_sf()
• read_nhgis_codebook()
• read_ipums_ddi()
• ipums_list_files()

These functions now require either a zip archive (with the exception of read_ipums_ddi()—see above) or a direct file path as input.

This has the consequence that read_ipums_sf() with bind_multiple = TRUE requires a zip archive as input if multiple files are to be read and combined.

• Documentation updates for clarity

ipumsr 0.6.2

• Fixes for CRAN checks.

ipumsr 0.6.1

• Fixes for CRAN checks.

ipumsr 0.6.0

Breaking Changes + Deprecations

IPUMS API

• ipumsr now supports IPUMS API version 2, and no longer supports either the beta version or version 1 of the IPUMS API.

This means that extract definitions saved in JSON format will no longer be compatible with ipumsr via define_extract_from_json(). To load extract definitions created under previous API versions, there are two options:

• Rewrite the extract definition represented in the JSON file using the define_extract_*() function for the relevant IPUMS collection, then update the saved file with save_extract_to_json().

• Update the JSON file by converting all snake_case fields to camelCase. For instance, "data_format" would become "dataFormat". The "api_version" field will also need to be changed to "version" and set equal to 2.

See the IPUMS developer documentation for more details on API versioning and breaking changes introduced in version 2.

• The ipums_extract object structure has been updated. For IPUMS microdata projects, variables and samples are no longer stored as character vectors, but as lists. This accommodates new API version 2 features (see below). Use names(x$variables) instead of x$variables to access variable (and sample) names as a character vector.

• get_recent_extracts_info_*() functions have been deprecated. Additionally, tabular-formatted extract history is no longer supported, and conversion functions extract_tbl_to_list() and extract_list_to_tbl() have therefore been deprecated as well.

Use get_extract_history() to browse previous extract definitions in list format.

IPUMS Readers

• read_nhgis_sf() and read_nhgis_sp() have been deprecated. Use read_ipums_sf() and read_nhgis() to load spatial and tabular data, respectively. Join data with an ipums_shape_*_join() function.

• data_layer and shape_layer arguments have been deprecated in favor of file_select throughout ipumsr. This provides clarity on the intended purpose of this argument. Deprecated functions that use the original argument names remain unchanged.

• Support for objects from the sp package has been deprecated because of the upcoming retirement of rgdal. Use read_ipums_sf() to load spatial data as an sf object. To convert to a Spatial* object, use sf::as_Spatial().

For more, see r-spatial's post covering the evolution of several spatial packages.

• read_ipums_sf() no longer defaults to bind_multiple = TRUE.

• Individual ipums_list_*() functions have been moved to ipums_list_files().

• read_ipums_codebook() has been deprecated. Use read_nhgis_codebook() to read NHGIS codebook files. IPUMS Terra codebook files are no longer supported (see below)

• Example files in ipums_example() have been updated and include new file names.

IPUMS Terra

• Support for IPUMS Terra has been discontinued. This includes deprecations to all read_terra_*() functions, the types = "raster" option in ipums_list_files(), and read_ipums_codebook().

For more on IPUMS Terra decommissioning, click here.

New Features

IPUMS API

• Adds API support for IPUMS NHGIS and IPUMS International!
• Use define_extract_nhgis() to create an NHGIS extract definition.

• Use define_extract_ipumsi() to create an IPUMS International extract definition.

• Adds support for IPUMS API version 2 features! This includes:

• Detailed variable specifications for IPUMS microdata extract definitions, including case selections, attached characteristics, and data quality flags. Use var_spec() to add these specifications to variables in your extract definition.
• Additional definition-wide parameters for IPUMS microdata extracts, including data_quality_flags and case_select_who.
• Hierarchical extracts for IPUMS microdata extracts. Set data_structure = "hiearchical" to create a hierarchical extract definition.

• Year selection for time series tables in IPUMS NHGIS extract definitions. Use tst_spec() to add year selections for time series tables.

• Adds API support for IPUMS NHGIS metadata

• Use get_metadata_nhgis() to browse NHGIS data sources. Metadata is available in summary form for all datasets, data tables, time series tables, and shapefiles as well as for individual datasets, data tables, and time series tables.

• Allows users to set a default IPUMS collection using set_ipums_default_collection(). Users with a default collection do not need to specify the IPUMS collection in functions that require it; instead, the default collection is used. This is a convenience for users who rely primarily on a single IPUMS collection.

• wait_for_extract() wait intervals no longer double after each status check. Instead, intervals increase by 10 seconds with each subsequent check.

IPUMS readers

• Adds handling for fixed-width NHGIS extracts in read_nhgis().

• read_nhgis_codebook() allows reading of raw codebook lines (as opposed to extracting codebook information into an ipums_ddi object) by setting raw = TRUE. Furthermore, var_info generated from NHGIS codebook files has been updated to include more contextual information about the data variables.

• read_nhgis() now supports additional arguments to refine the data loading process. Users can now specify col_types manually and read a subset of a data file using vars and n_max.

• read_nhgis() now allows users to retain the extra header row included in some NHGIS files. Set remove_extra_header = FALSE to do so. In general, the information contained in the extra header is attached to the data from the NHGIS codebook file, but in some cases the extra header may differ slightly from the information found in the codebook.

Miscellaneous

• Various bug fixes

• Updates to documentation and vignettes for clarity

ipumsr 0.5.2

• Add progress bar when downloading extracts

• Removed validate argument from extract revision functions and improved warning messages for invalid extract field names when used as arguments.

• Fixed bug preventing users from providing their API key directly to submit_extract and wait_for_extract.

ipumsr 0.5.1

• Added the "Rmd for Reproducible Research" template, which sets up a workflow that leverages the IPUMS API to facilitate sharing your analysis. For more details, see the blog post. Credit to @ehrlichd for the template and blog post!

• Moved the raster package to Suggests so that it is no longer installed automatically when you install ipumsr. The raster package is only required if you need to read raster extracts from the IPUMS Terra collection, and IPUMS Terra is slated to be decommissioned shortly.

ipumsr 0.5.0

• Added functions for interacting with the IPUMS API for IPUMS USA and IPUMS CPS. For an overview of this new functionality, see the API vignette with vignette("ipums-api", package = "ipumsr"). Special thanks to @robe2037, @renae-r, and @ehrlichd for their work on the API functions!

ipumsr 0.4.5

• Fixed bug causing a read error for some labeled string variables (#61, thanks @chengchou).

• ipumsr now always uses the haven::labelled() function to create labelled vectors, in order to maintain compatibility with developments in the haven and vctrs packages (thanks @gergness!).

• ipumsr now requires R 3.5 or greater, in line with the new requirements of package dependency raster.

ipumsr 0.4.4

• Modify lbl_define() test to reflect changes to haven's labelled class definition.

ipumsr 0.4.3

• Add lbl_define() function to enable the use of lbl_relabel() syntax when creating a new labelled vector from an unlabelled one (#51, thanks @chengchou).

• Remove pillar printing from ipumsr, getting rid of pesky warning (#47).

• Improved documentation for lower_vars argument (#56, thanks @hrecht).

ipumsr 0.4.2

• Incorporate bug fix in knitr 1.23 that affected encoding in NHGIS vignette.

ipumsr 0.4.1

• Remove stringr & tidyr dependencies so installation is a little easier (#41).

• Fix bug in pillar printing of haven's labelled objects (#43)

ipumsr 0.4.0

• Add read_ipums_micro_yield() and read_ipums_micro_list_yield() that read data in 'yields', a concept similar to 'chunks', but with a little more flexibility. See the big data vignette (vignette("ipums-bigdata", package = "ipumsr")) for more details.

• Fixed a bug when trying to set variable attributes but not value labels (#34).

• Fixed a bug where implicit decimals would be double counted for csv files.

• Argument rectype_convert has been removed because it no longer did anything.

• Fixed a typo in vignette "ipums-geography" (#37, @jacobkap).

• Creates a pkgdown site (#38, @jacobkap).

ipumsr 0.3.0

• Lots of improvements for users who wish to use "big data" sized IPUMS extracts. See the vignette using command vignette("ipums-bigdata", package = "ipusmr") for the full details.

• There are now chunked versions of the microdata reading functions which let you perform functions on subsets of the data as you read it in (read_ipums_micro_chunked() & ipumsr::read_ipums_micro_list_chunked())

• There is a new function ipums_collect() which combined dplyr::collect() with set_ipums_attributes() to add value and variable labels to data collected from a database.

• When reading gzipped files, ipumsr no longer has to store the full text in memory.

• Added pillar printing for labelled classes in tibbles. This means that the label will print the labels alongside the values when printed in a tibble (in a subtle grey color when the terminal supports it). To turn this feature off, use command `options("ipumsr.show_pillar_labels" = FALSE).

• The approach to reading hierarchical data files is much faster.

• Arguments to read_ipums_sp() are now in the same order as read_ipums_sf()

• read_ipums_sf() and read_ipums_sp() gain 2 new arguments vars which allows you to pick a subset of variables, and add_layer_var which lets you add a variable indicating which layer it came from.

• You can now use your inside voice for variable names with the new argument lower_vars for read_ipums_ddi() and read_ipums_micro() family of functions so that the variable names are lower case.

• ipumsr is compatible with versions of haven newer than 2.0 (while maintaining compatibility with earlier versions). (#31)

ipumsr 0.2.0

• IPUMS Terra is now officially supported! Read raster, area or microdata extracts using functions read_terra_raster(), read_terra_raster_list(), read_terra_area(), read_terra_area_sf(), and read_terra_micro()

• Add support for keyvar in DDI, which will (eventually) help link data across record types in hierarchical extracts. To be effective, this requires more support on the ipums.org website, which is hopefully coming soon (#25 - thanks @mpadge!)

• Improved main vignette instructions for Safari users (#27)

• Fix for selecting columns from csv extracts (#26 - thanks forum user JCambon_OIS!)

• Fixes for the ipums_list_*() family of functions.

ipumsr 0.1.1

• Fixed a bug in ipums_shape_*_join functions when using integer ID columns. (#16)

• Allow for unzipped folders because Safari on macOS unzips folders by default (#17)

• lbl_relabel behavior is improved so that labels aren't assigned sequentially (#21)

ipumsr documentation built on Oct. 20, 2023, 5:10 p.m.