The American Community Survey (ACS) Detailed Tables and Data Profile estimates in the Census API are being converted to be consistent in the treatment of character and numeric data.  Existingly, Detailed Tables only have numeric values and are missing the character values in the API, while Data Profiles have character values in place of numeric values, where applicable.  In the new format, ACS will will have both numeric and character data in the API in a consistent format for all data products.

In order to make the data consistant with other surveys and datasets, ACS will be adding in special variables just for character data and moving the numeric data to the existing variables. The new character variables will have the same name as existing numeric variables but with  an “A” on the end.

Note:  The character data is only present in the API if character data exist and should always be used for display purposes in place of numeric data.

Below is an example using My Congressional Districts which sources Data Profiles that will be changing in the new by moving the existing character data into the new API variables that end with an “A”.

Existing example

Existing example API call and results for selected variables for Wyoming Congressional District (At Large)

call

https://api.census.gov/data/2015/acs1/profile?get=DP05_0001E,DP05_0002E,DP05_0003E,DP05_0001M,DP05_0002M,DP05_0003M&for=congressional+district:00&in=state:56

results

[["DP05_0001E","DP05_0002E","DP05_0003E","DP05_0001M","DP05_0002M","DP05_0003M","state","congressional district"],
["586107","295102","291005","*****","2375","2375","56","00"]]

New example sourcing document

New example API call and results for selected variables for Wyoming Congressional District (At Large)

call

https://api.census.gov/data/2015/acs/acs1/profile?get=DP05_0001E,DP05_0002E,DP05_0003E,DP05_0001M,DP05_0002M,DP05_0003M&for=congressional+district:00&in=state:56

results

[["DP05_0001E","DP05_0002E","DP05_0003E","DP05_0001M","DP05_0002M","DP05_0003M","state","congressional district"],
["586107","295102","291005","-555555555","2375","2375","56","00"]]

New example API annotation calls and annotation results for selected variables for Wyoming Congressional District (At Large)

call

https://api.census.gov/data/2015/acs/acs1/profile?get=DP05_0001EA,DP05_0002EA,DP05_0003EA,DP05_0001MA,DP05_0002MA,DP05_0003MA&for=congressional+district:00&in=state:56

results

[["DP05_0001EA","DP05_0002EA","DP05_0003EA","DP05_0001MA","DP05_0002MA","DP05_0003MA","state","congressional district"],
[null,null,null,"*****",null,null,"56","00"]]

call

https://api.census.gov/data/2015/acs5?get=NAME,B01001_001E,B01001_001M&for=county:017&in=state:24

results

[["NAME","B01001_001E","B01001_001M","state","county"],

["Charles County, Maryland","152754","0","24","017"]]