covidcast_epidata {epidatr}

Creates the COVIDcast Epidata autocomplete helper

Description

Creates a helper object that can use auto-complete to help find COVIDcast sources and signals. The COVIDcast endpoint of the Epidata API contains many separate data sources and signals. It can be difficult to find the name of the signal you're looking for, so you can use covidcast_epidata to get help with finding sources and functions without leaving R.

The covidcast_epidata() function fetches a list of all signals, and returns an object containing fields for every signal:

epidata <- covidcast_epidata()
epidata$signals
#> # A tibble: 443 x 3
#>    source        signal                        short_description                
#>    <chr>         <chr>                         <chr>                            
#>  1 chng          smoothed_outpatient_cli       Estimated percentage of outpatie~
#>  2 chng          smoothed_adj_outpatient_cli   Estimated percentage of outpatie~
#>  3 chng          smoothed_outpatient_covid     COVID-Confirmed Doctor Visits    
#>  4 chng          smoothed_adj_outpatient_covid COVID-Confirmed Doctor Visits    
#>  5 chng          smoothed_outpatient_flu       Estimated percentage of outpatie~
#>  6 chng          smoothed_adj_outpatient_flu   Estimated percentage of outpatie~
#>  7 covid-act-now pcr_specimen_positivity_rate  Proportion of PCR specimens test~
#>  8 covid-act-now pcr_specimen_total_tests      Total number of PCR specimens te~
#>  9 doctor-visits smoothed_cli                  Percentage of daily doctor visit~
#> 10 doctor-visits smoothed_adj_cli              Percentage of daily doctor visit~
#> # i 433 more rows

If you use an editor that supports tab completion, such as RStudio, type ⁠epidata$signals$⁠ and wait for the tab completion popup. You will be able to type the name of signals and have the autocomplete feature select them from the list for you. Note that some signal names have dashes in them, so to access them we rely on the backtick operator:

epidata$signals$`fb-survey:smoothed_cli`
#> [1] "COVID-Like Symptoms (Unweighted 7-day average)"
#> [1] "fb-survey:smoothed_cli"
#> [1] "Estimated percentage of people with COVID-like illness "

These objects can be used directly to fetch data, without requiring us to use the pub_covidcast() function. Simply use the ⁠$call⁠ attribute of the object:

epidata$signals$`fb-survey:smoothed_cli`$call("state", "pa",
                                              epirange(20210405, 20210410))
#> # A tibble: 6 x 15
#>   geo_value signal     source geo_type time_type time_value direction issue     
#>   <chr>     <chr>      <chr>  <fct>    <fct>     <date>         <dbl> <date>    
#> 1 pa        smoothed_~ fb-su~ state    day       2021-04-05        NA 2021-04-10
#> 2 pa        smoothed_~ fb-su~ state    day       2021-04-06        NA 2021-04-11
#> 3 pa        smoothed_~ fb-su~ state    day       2021-04-07        NA 2021-04-12
#> 4 pa        smoothed_~ fb-su~ state    day       2021-04-08        NA 2021-04-13
#> 5 pa        smoothed_~ fb-su~ state    day       2021-04-09        NA 2021-04-14
#> 6 pa        smoothed_~ fb-su~ state    day       2021-04-10        NA 2021-04-15
#> # i 7 more variables: lag <dbl>, missing_value <dbl>, missing_stderr <dbl>,
#> #   missing_sample_size <dbl>, value <dbl>, stderr <dbl>, sample_size <dbl>

Usage

covidcast_epidata(base_url = global_base_url, timeout_seconds = 30)

Arguments

base_url

optional alternative API base url

timeout_seconds

the maximum amount of time to wait for a response

Value

An instance of covidcast_epidata