Experimental helper function to download ABS data cubes that are not compatible with read_abs.

download_abs_data_cube() downloads the latest ABS data cubes based on the catalogue name (from the website url) and cube. The function downloads the file to disk.

Unlike read_abs(), this function doesn't import or tidy the data. Convenience functions are provided to import and tidy key data cubes; see ?read_payrolls() and ?read_lfs_grossflows().

download_abs_data_cube(
  catalogue_string,
  cube,
  path = Sys.getenv("R_READABS_PATH", unset = tempdir())
)

Arguments

catalogue_string

ABS catalogue name as a string from the ABS website. For example, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed is "labour-force-australia-detailed". The possible catalogues can be obtained using the helper function show_available_catalogues(); or search these catalogues using search_catalogues(),

cube

character. A character string that is either the complete filename or (uniquely) in the filename of the data cube you want to download, e.g. "EQ09". The available filenames can be obtained using the helper function get_available_files()

path

Local directory in which downloaded files should be stored. By default, path takes the value set in the environment variable "R_READABS_PATH". If this variable is not set, any files downloaded will be stored in a temporary directory (tempdir()). See Details below for more information.

Details

download_abs_data_cube() downloads an Excel spreadsheet from the ABS.

The file need to be saved somewhere on your disk. This local directory can be controlled using the path argument to read_abs(). If the path argument is not set, read_abs() will store the files in a directory set in the "R_READABS_PATH" environment variable. If this variable isn't set, files will be saved in a temporary directory.

To check the value of the "R_READABS_PATH" variable, run Sys.getenv("R_READABS_PATH"). You can set the value of this variable for a single session using Sys.setenv(R_READABS_PATH = <path>). If you would like to change this variable for all future R sessions, edit your .Renviron file and add R_READABS_PATH = <path> line. The easiest way to edit this file is using usethis::edit_r_environ().

The filepath is returned invisibly which enables piping to unzip() or readxl::read_excel.

See also

Other data cube functions: search_catalogues(), show_available_catalogues(), show_available_files()

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
download_abs_data_cube(
  catalogue_string = "labour-force-australia-detailed",
  cube = "EQ09"
)
} # }