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Select

Select

Owned by Andrew DeCarlo
Last updated: Sept 16, 2016

Overview

The select API is a powerful way for users to access the data offered to them through Rich Data Services. The select API is based on a very familiar idea, users want to view their data in different ways. They may want to see all the data available or they may want to apply filters which allow them to see only specific records (rows) or variables (columns). While this functionality may seem similar to what a standard relational database can do, RDS takes it a step further by powering the selection capabilities with underlying metadata which allows for querying by Regular Expressions, and Keywords. 

The select API will return to users the data that corresponds with their request. In addition to this each query returns a basic summary of the results, including the limits placed on the columns and rows, the offsets where the query started, and indicators as to whether there are more records/variables available.

Selecting Data

The standard select query will show all variables and all records of a given data source to a point. The results will be limited by default to 20 records or 10k cells in order to preserve efficiency. The results can easily be paged using some convenience attributes. 

  • To query a view you will need to know the collection id and the view id that you wish to query. 
  • See Listing Collections to learn more about viewing the available collections.
  • See Listing Data Sources to learn more about viewing the available views.

  • Once the collection and view have been selected, users can run a select query like this: 

    http://{host}/rds/api/catalog/{collection}/{view}/select