Jonathan,
One of the search options in the “TOPICS” box on the left is “DATASET”. A tip that has helped me is to drill down as far as I can using those boxes on the left (geography, dataset, variable… I usually do it in this order and have had good luck) and what I am looking for generally arrives on the first page.
Another tip, be sure to clear your basket between searches. If you have elements of a previous search it can get confusing and will lead to frustrating messages about variables or geographies not being available.
Kendra Watkins
Senior Planner
Mid-Region Council of Governments
809 Copper NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505)724-3601
From: ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lupton
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 2:57 PM
To: ctpp-news@chrispy.net
Subject: Re: [CTPP] Census/ACS data downloads
Okay, I finally got what I was looking for. Many thanks to Nancy Gemignani - you got me on the right track. I had to scroll through seven screens of ACS 2010, 2009, 2008, etc. to finally retrieve Census 2000 SF-3.
Does anyone know if there’s a shortcut without all this scrolling? I remember asking about this at the AFF2 training webinar in October, and I don’t think there was a good answer. Once ACS 2011, 2012, 2013, etc are up there it may take 27 screens to get back to Census 2000.
Patty, I agree that the AFF2 downloads are also sometimes a mess. I have designed a macro that takes out the MOE columns, which are reliably every other column. It’s scary to run, because it feels like taking a meat cleaver to your data, but actually works well. You can save your data first just to be safe.
I remain astonished that they took something that worked pretty well (“Legacy” FactFinder) and, rather than building on what was good, they junked it, put on dunce caps, and came up with the resulting mess. I think it’s an “emperor with no clothes” situation, the typical product of top-down hierarchical bureaucracy in which underlings know there’s a problem, but the information isn’t allowed to climb the command chain. But I digress.
Deep linking looks promising, but working for an MPO I’m wearing a lot of hats, and haven’t found time to go there yet.
Thanks everybody for the helpful tips. I’d still like another webinar on advanced use of Data Ferret.
Jonathan Lupton
From: ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Patty Becker
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 3:18 PM
To: ctpp-news@chrispy.net
Subject: Re: [CTPP] Census/ACS data downloads
The best way to get a specific data set is to select it by clicking on topics, then dataset. Then all the tables you bring up are restricted to those in that one dataset.
The ACS labor force/age/sex table is B23001. After selecting the dataset, you can type the table number into the selection box and click go, and then it will bring up the one table and you can click the box and "view." It's still way too many clicks If you want 2000 data, select 2000 SF3 as a dataset and then just type "labor force" in the box. You'll get an assortment of tables and you can choose the one you want.
We all hate AFF2, although our lists of pet peeves may vary in content. Mine are (1) you can only retrieve one table at a time, and (2) the download options are horrible. The simple csv option to be opened in Excel does not exist. When you select the xls option, you get a table which has left-justified numbers and weird columns. You can fix this, but it's a burden. If instead you choose to get a csv table for use as a database, the rows and columns transpose. This is fine if you have a lot of geographic areas and a table with few cells, but lousy otherwise. If you try to transpose it back the "estimate" and "margin of error" rows are interleaved. There simply are no good download options.
Patty Becker
At 03:29 PM 2/17/2012, you wrote:
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0036_01CCED80.96637900"
Content-Language: en-us
Ms. Gemignani:
Thanks for the tips with AFF2. I tried, but failed. I’ll share this with the list serve because it may be instructive to others. I’m probably missing something simple, but this may help reveal the (multiple) fallacies of AFF2.
After selecting the county geography, I did as you said in the message below: I typed in “labor force age sex.” This was great. I got a long list of 2010 ACS tables, but at least they resembled what I’m looking for. Then I typed in “2000 SF3” and got: “No tables, files or documents were found that match … blah blah…”
What am I doing wrong here? When I try scrolling through the multiple pages of results, I go through two pages of 2010 ACS. Then I run into 2009 ACS. How many dozens of pages must I scroll through to get Census 2000?
I also can’t help but use this as commentary on AFF2. I’m a data user with years of experience and training. If I can’t easily find what I need, what hope does the general public have? Very little of Census 2000 is available in printed form. Will it become the “dark age” Census, that nobody can get to?
Again, thanks for taking the time. I would like nothing more than to be able to make full use of AFF2.
Jonathan Lupton
From: ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net [ mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Gemignani, Nancy
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 1:22 PM
To: ctpp-news@chrispy.net
Subject: Re: [CTPP] Census/ACS data downloads
Jonathan, Sounds like you have found t------=_NextPart_000_0036_01CCED80.96637900-- --===============4682139925125998441== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline _______________________________________________ ctpp-news mailing list ctpp-news@ryoko.chrispy.net http://ryoko.chrispy.net/mailman/listinfo/ctpp-news --===============4682139925125998441==--
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Patricia C. (Patty) Becker 248/354-6520
APB Associates/SEMCC FAX 248/354-6645
28300 Franklin Road Home 248/355-2428
Southfield, MI 48034 pbecker@umich.edu