/census/variables/search

POST /api/census/variables/search

Price: 10 credits

Search the variables of a U.S. Census dataset by keyword

How to use it

List or search the variables (columns) of a U.S. Census Bureau dataset by its dataset path, optionally filtered by keyword. Returns each variable code with its human-readable label, concept, group, and data type — useful to decode codes like 'DP05_0001E' into 'Total population'. Get a dataset path from the 'datasets/search' endpoint or a table's metadata.

Parameters

• access-token string required

Request body

• timeout integer — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
• dataset string required — Dataset path ({year}/{program}/...) (examples: "2023/acs/acs1/profile", "2022/acs/acs5", "2020/dec/pl"; minLength: 1)
• count integer required — Number of variables to return (min: 1)
• keyword string nullable — Filter by words in the variable label or concept (examples: "income")

Response

• @type string (default: "CensusVariable")
• id string required
• label string nullable
• concept string nullable
• group string nullable
• predicate_type string nullable

Errors

• 422 — The request body did not validate Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.
• 408 — The request ran past its time limit Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.
• 412 — Dataset path not found Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.
• 429 — Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.
• 500 — Something broke on our side Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.
• 529 — Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

Response headers

• X-Error — Error message text (present only on error)
• X-Request-ID — Unique request identifier
• X-Execution-Time — Execution time in seconds
• X-Result-Count — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
• X-Total-Available-Results — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
• X-Warning — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
• X-Retry-After — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.