So I’m once again befuddled by the way the API handles variable IDs.

I’m trying to retrieve data from table PCT20: “Group quarters population by group quarters type” from SF1. However the SF1 does not seem to follow the same variable formatting as the ACS 5-Year (it doesn’t seem to use the _001E / _001M suffixes).

In the example queries, the table “P001:  total population” is retrieved using the ID ‘P0010001’. Based on this I would’ve guessed that the 0001 designates the variable within the table in the same way that _001E does. However using this same style suffix on PCT20 results in an error.

Does anyone know how these IDs are constructed? I haven’t been able to find a variable list for SF1 that corresponds to this one.

Thanks much,

Sam Ennis