set_ipums_api_key: Set your IPUMS API key

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

Set your IPUMS API key

Description

Set your IPUMS API key as the value associated with the IPUMS_API_KEY environment variable.

The key can be stored for the duration of your session or for future sessions. If saved for future sessions, it is added to the .Renviron file in your home directory. If you choose to save your key to .Renviron, this function will create a backup copy of the file before modifying.

This function is modeled after the census_api_key() function from tidycensus.

Learn more about the IPUMS API in vignette("ipums-api").

Usage

set_ipums_api_key(api_key, save = overwrite, overwrite = FALSE, unset = FALSE)

Arguments

api_key	API key associated with your user account.
save	If TRUE, save the key for use in future sessions by adding it to the .Renviron file in your home directory. Defaults to FALSE, unless overwrite = TRUE.
overwrite	If TRUE, overwrite any existing value of IPUMS_API_KEY in the .Renviron file with the provided api_key. Defaults to FALSE.
unset	If TRUE, remove the existing value of IPUMS_API_KEY from the environment and the .Renviron file in your home directory.

Value

The value of api_key, invisibly.

See Also

set_ipums_default_collection() to set a default collection.

Examples

# Set for single session
set_ipums_api_key("your-api-key-here")

## Not run: 
# Save key to .Renviron for future sessions
set_ipums_api_key("your-api-key-here", save = TRUE)

# Overwrite existing key in .Renviron
set_ipums_api_key("your-api-key-here", overwrite = TRUE)

# Remove existing key from .Renviron
set_ipums_api_key("your-api-key-here", unset = TRUE)

## End(Not run)

ipumsr documentation built on March 13, 2026, 9:06 a.m.