This help file outlines which software you can use to access EconData.
Excel Add-In
Our EconData Excel Add-In pulls the latest, up-to-date time series data (from any of the datasets supplied in EconData) into your Excel workbooks. The series will be structured as two columns with some headers: the left-hand column gives the date and the right-had column gives the values. You can, for example, overwrite previous data pulls to update graphs or quantitative models that are linked to that range.
To use the Excel Add-In, first create an account on www.EconData.co.za, then, in Excel, go to the Insert ribbon → Add-ins → Get Add-ins → search for “EconData” → add the app → and sign in to the app, using your EconData credentials.
For more guidance, please see our tutorial.
R package ☍
The R package can be installed with the following sequence of commands, in R:
library(remotes)
install_github("coderaanalytics/econdatar")
library(econdatar)
Pulling data in R
An example of how you can pull structured data, using the read_dataset()
function, is as follows. The data are provided in two tables in a list (the data table and the meta-data table), which can be linked with the data key. The data table contains the time period, values, and the data key (a concise encoding of the concept). The meta-data table gives more detail about each data key.
library(econdatar)
data_raw <- read_dataset( id = "POPULATION_DATA_REG",
releasedescription = "latest",
version = "latest",
tidy = TRUE,
wide = FALSE,
compact = FALSE )
str(data_raw)
You thus need to use an ID when calling the data. We outline the IDs in Available Data. We have sample code like this on GitHub, at econdata-blog/docs/concept-checker.R
Full details about the read_dataset()
function.
Authenticating
For each session, you will need to use your API key. Please go to the “Account” tab in the app and generate an API token, which lasts one hour.
![](https://econdata.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/API-token-EconData.png)
You can copy it from there, and paste it into the dialogue box which pops up. At the moment, Mac users need to use Ctrl + V here (not Cmd + V).
![](https://econdata.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/API-dialogue.png)
You may have received an email from admin [at] codera.co.za about this on Sunday, 11 August 2024, 20:57.