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Advanced Data API Queries

About Advanced Data API Queries (BETA)

Below is an example response to an Advanced Data Query. Please refer to this example when reading the query definitions below:

<wb:data xmlns:wb="http://www.worldbank.org" page="1" pages="1" per_page="50" total="1" lastupdated="2011-12-15">
  <wb:source id="2" name="World Development Indicators">
    <wb:data>
      <wb:variable name="Country" id="IND">India</wb:variable>
      <wb:variable name="Series" id="SP.POP.TOTL">Population, total</wb:variable>
      <wb:variable name="Time" id="YR2011">2011</wb:variable>
      <wb:value>1241491960</wb:value>
    </wb:data>
  </wb:source>
</wb:data>

Query Definitions

Advanced Data Queries allow you to retrieve data for any combination of multidimensional data sources and multidimensional concepts. The following Advanced Data Queries can be made through the Metadata API. Detailed explanations and examples are provided for each query type in the following pages. Please refer to the above response example when interpreting these explanations.

  • Source: Retrieves information about the source database.
    • Examples: World Development Indicators, Doing Business, International Debt Statistics, etc.

      <wb:source id="2" name="World Development Indicators">
      
  • Concept: Retrieves source Concepts (also known as “Dimensions” or combinations of dimensions).
    • Examples: Country, Series, Time, etc.
      <wb:variable name="Country">
      
  • Concept Variables: Retrieves source Concept Variables (also known as “Dimension Variables”). Concept Variables belong to Concepts.
    • Examples: High Income, East Asia & Pacific, United States of America, 2012, etc.
      <wb:variable name="Country" id="IND">India</wb:variable>
      
  • Data: Retrieves data for any combination of Source and Concepts.
    • Examples: 12341491960, etc.
      <wb:value>1241491960</wb:value>
      

Source Queries

The following data source information will appear, when available, in the response.

  • Date last updated
  • Source ID
  • Source Name
  • WB Source Code
  • Source description
  • Source URL
  • Data availability: “Y” means indicator data is available for that source; “N” means it is not available.
  • Meta data availability: “Y” means Meta data is available for that source; “N” means it is not available.
  • Number of concepts

Sample Request Format: Source Queries

To request information about all sources: http://api.worldbank.org/v2/sources

Sample Response Format: Source Queries

</wb:source> … </wb:sources>


* JSON Request: <http://api.worldbank.org/v2/sources?format=json>

  ```json
  [
    {
      "page":1,
      "pages":1,
      "per_page":50,
      "total":42
    },
    [
      {
        "id":"11",
        "name":"Africa Development Indicators ",
        "description": "",
        "url": "",
        "dataavailability": "Y",
        "metadataavailability": "Y"      
      },
    ...
    ]
  ]

Concept Queries

This call will return the following information, when available, about concepts of a specific source.

  • Source ID
  • Concept ID
  • Concept Name

Sample Request Formats: Concept Queries

To request a list of all available concepts: http://api.worldbank.org/v2/sources/2/concepts/data

Sample Response Formats: Concept Queries

Concept Variables Queries

This call will return the following information, when available, about concept variables of a specific source.

  • Source ID
  • Concept ID
  • Concept Name
  • Variable ID
  • Variable Name

Sample Request Formats: Concept Variables Queries

To request a list of all available variables in a concept: http://api.worldbank.org/v2/sources/2/country/data

Sample Response Formats: Concept Queries

  • XML Request: http://api.worldbank.org/v2/sources/2/country/data?format=xml

    <wb:data xmlns:wb="http://www.worldbank.org" page="1" pages="6" per_page="50" total="264">
      <wb:source id="2" name="World Development Indicators">
        <wb:concept id="country" name="country">
          <wb:variable id="ABW">Aruba</wb:variable>
          <wb:variable id="AFG">Afghanistan</wb:variable>
          <wb:variable id="AGO">Angola</wb:variable>
          <wb:variable id="ALB">Albania</wb:variable>
          ...
        </wb:concept>
      </wb:source>
    </wb:data>
    
  • JSON Request: http://api.worldbank.org/v2/sources/2/country/data?format=json

     {
       "page":1,
       "pages":6,
       "per_page":50,
       "total":264,
       "source":[{
         "id":"2",
         "name":"World Development Indicators",
         "concept":[{
           "id":"country",
           "name":"country",
           "variable":[
             {"id":"ABW","value":"Aruba"},
             {"id":"AFG","value":"Afghanistan"},
             {"id":"AGO","value":"Angola"},
             {"id":"ALB","value":"Albania"},
             ... 
           ]
         }]
       }]
     }
    
  • Example: to retrieve a specific concept variable detail for a source (in this example, concept ID is “Country”, Country variable id is “ALB” and Source is World Development Indicators or source 2): http://api.worldbank.org/v2/sources/57/country/ALB/data

Advanced Data Queries

Data can be retrieved for any combination of Sources and Concepts.

Example: The following request provides data for Country ALB (Albania), Series AG.AGR.TRAC.NO ( Agricultural machinery, tractors), Time 1975, Version 1997 Apr.

In this example, “sources”, “country”, “series”, “time”, and “version” are all keywords: http://api.worldbank.org/v2/sources/57/country/ALB/series/AG.AGR.TRAC.NO/time/yr1975/version/199704

Response Format: Advanced Data Queries

JSON-stat Queries (BETA)

Data can be retrieved in JSON-stat format.

Sample Request Format: JSON-stat Queries

http://api.worldbank.org/v2/sources/57/country/ALB/series/AG.AGR.TRAC.NO/time/all/version/199704/data?format=jsonstat

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