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When using get_decennial() or get_acs(), tidycensus defaults to downloading 500k cartographic boundary files (cb = TRUE). However, the underlying package tigris defaults to downloading TIGER/Line files (cb = FALSE). I knew about the tigris behavior, and I assumed tidycensus was using the same default as tigris. I found documentation in the Spatial data in tidycensus vignette, but it is not included in the documentation for get_decennial() or get_acs(), where the cb parameter is just subsumed by ... "Other keyword arguments".
IMO, if cb is going to have a different default in tidycensus than tigris, the parameter and default should be made explicit in the get_decennial() and get_acs() documentation.
Irrelevant trivia: I should have realized this sooner, or maybe I just forgot. This came up because of Census FTP servers being down (Feb 4, 2025). Census API is working, so get_decennial() is downloading demographic tables, but geometry = TRUE is failing. This sent me to my cache directory to see what files had accumulated, and I was surprised to see the cartographic boundary files instead of the TIGER/Line files. (Unfortunately working on a recently purchased laptop, so my cache is not very large right now.)
The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:
Hopefully minor request.
When using
get_decennial()
orget_acs()
,tidycensus
defaults to downloading 500k cartographic boundary files (cb = TRUE
). However, the underlying packagetigris
defaults to downloading TIGER/Line files (cb = FALSE
). I knew about thetigris
behavior, and I assumedtidycensus
was using the same default astigris
. I found documentation in the Spatial data in tidycensus vignette, but it is not included in the documentation forget_decennial()
orget_acs()
, where thecb
parameter is just subsumed by...
"Other keyword arguments".IMO, if
cb
is going to have a different default intidycensus
thantigris
, the parameter and default should be made explicit in theget_decennial()
andget_acs()
documentation.Irrelevant trivia: I should have realized this sooner, or maybe I just forgot. This came up because of Census FTP servers being down (Feb 4, 2025). Census API is working, so
get_decennial()
is downloading demographic tables, butgeometry = TRUE
is failing. This sent me to my cache directory to see what files had accumulated, and I was surprised to see the cartographic boundary files instead of the TIGER/Line files. (Unfortunately working on a recently purchased laptop, so my cache is not very large right now.)The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered: