I'm starting a work to analyse data from Stats Institutions like Eurostat using python, and so pandas. I found out there are two methods to get data from Eurostat.
- pandas_datareader: it seems very easy to use but I found some problems to get some specific data
- pandasdmx: I've found it a bit complicated but it seems a promising solution, but documentation is poor
I use a free Azure notebook, online service, but I don't think it will complicate more my situation.
Let me explain the problems for pandas_datareader. According to the pandas documentation, in the section API, there is this short documented package and it works. Apart from the shown example, that nicely works, a problem arises about other tables. For example, I can get data about European house price, which ID table is prc_hpi_a with this simple code:
import pandas_datareader.data as web
import datetime
df = web.DataReader('prc_hpi_a', 'eurostat')
But the table has three types of data about dwellings: TOTAL, EXISTING and NEW. I got only Existing dwellings and I don't know how to get the other ones. Do you have a solution for these types of filtering.
Secondly there is the path using pandasdmx. Here it is more complicated. My idea is to upload all data to a pandas DataFrame, and then I can analyse as I want. Easy to say, but I've not find many tutorials that explain this passage: upload data to pandas structures. For example, I found this tutorial, but I'm stuck to the first step, that is instantiate a client:
import pandasdmx
from pandasdmx import client
#estat=client('Eurostat', 'milk.db')
and it returns:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ImportError Traceback (most recent call last) in () 1 import pandasdmx ----> 2 from pandasdmx import client 3 estat=client('Eurostat', 'milk.db')
ImportError: cannot import name 'client'
What's the problem here? I've looked around but no answer to this problem
I also followed this tutorial:
from pandasdmx import Request
estat = Request('ESTAT')
metadata = estat.datastructure('DSD_une_rt_a').write()
metadata.codelist.iloc[8:18]
resp = estat.data('une_rt_a', key={'GEO': 'EL+ES+IE'}, params={'startPeriod': '2007'})
data = resp.write(s for s in resp.data.series if s.key.AGE == 'TOTAL')
data.columns.names
data.columns.levels
data.loc[:, ('PC_ACT', 'TOTAL', 'T')]
I got the data, but my purpose is to upload them to a pandas structure (Series, DataFrame, etc..), so I can handle easily according to my work. How to do that? Actually I did with this working line (below the previous ones):
s=pd.DataFrame(data)
But it doesn't work if I try to get other data tables. Let me explain with another example about the Harmonized Index Current Price table:
estat = Request('ESTAT')
metadata = estat.datastructure('DSD_prc_hicp_midx').write()
resp = estat.data('prc_hicp_midx')
data = resp.write(s for s in resp.data.series if s.key.COICOP == 'CP00')
It returns an error here, that is:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- AttributeError Traceback (most recent call last) in () 2 metadata = estat.datastructure('DSD_prc_hicp_midx').write() 3 resp = estat.data('prc_hicp_midx') ----> 4 data = resp.write(s for s in resp.data.series if s.key.COICOP == 'CP00') 5 #metadata.codelist 6 #data.loc[:, ('TOTAL', 'INX_Q','EA', 'Q')]
~/anaconda3_501/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pandasdmx/api.py in getattr(self, name) 622 Make Message attributes directly readable from Response instance 623 ''' --> 624 return getattr(self.msg, name) 625 626 def _init_writer(self, writer):
AttributeError: 'DataMessage' object has no attribute 'data'
Why does it do not get data now? What's wrong now?
I lost almost a day looking around for some clear examples and explanations. Do you have some to propose? Is there a full and clear documentation? I found also this page with other examples, explaining the use of categorical schemes, but it is not for Eurostat (as explained at some point)
Both methods could work, apart from some explained issues, but I need also a suggestion to have a definitely method to use, to query Eurostat but also many other institutions like OECD, World Bank, etc... Could you guide me to a definitive and working solution, even if it is different for each institution?
