valorum 0.2.0

Python library for loading/cleaning data used in Valorum training

This package provides a simplified interface to datasets that we use frequently.

As of now (1-1-18) this package is not registered on pypy. To install and use we recommend using the following steps from the command line:

1. Clone or download this repository

2. Change directory into the cloned repo

3. Call pip install -e ., where you can change the python the package is installed into by providing the full path to the pip executable

Loading data

To see a list of available datasets run

import valorum
valorum.data.available()

To load one of the listed datasets run

df = valorum.data.load("dataset_name")

where dataset_name is replaced by one of the names returned by valorum.data.available().

When you first load a dataset, valorum will fetch the data from somewhere online. It will then save a local copy of the data to your hard drive. Subsequent requests to load a dataset (even in different python sessions) will first attempt to load the data from your hard drive and only fetch from online if necessary.

Configuration

The valorum library is configurable. Below is a listing of available configuration options.

To see a list of valid configuration options run

import valorum
valorum.data.config.describe_options()

To set a configuration use valourm.data.options[section.option] = value.

For example, to set the configuration option for the BLS api_key I would call:

import valorum
valorum.data.options["bls.api_key"] = "MY_API_KEY"

Developer docs

Contributing datasets

To contribute a dataset you need to implement a function _retrieve_{name} inside the file data/retrieve.py. This function is responsible for obtaining the data either “by hand” (data hard coded into the function) or from online. The function must return a pandas DataFrame with the data.