pvsR (version 0.1.1)

Rating.getSigList: Get a list of special interest groups according to rating category and state.

Description

This function is a wrapper for the Rating.getSigList() method of the PVS API Rating class which dumps special interest groups (SIGs) according to category and state. The function sends a request with this method to the PVS API for all category and state IDs given as a function input, extracts the XML values from the returned XML file(s) and returns them arranged in one data frame.

Usage

Rating.getSigList(stateId="NA", categoryId)

Arguments

stateId

(optional) a character string or list of character strings with the state ID(s) (default: NA) (see references for details)

categoryId

a character string or list of character strings with the category ID(s) (see references for details)

Value

• A data frame with a row for each special interest group and columns with variables describing the special interest group. The returned data frame contains a row for each special interest group and columns with the following variables describing the special interest group: sigs.sig*.sigId, sigs.sig*.parentId, sigs.sig*.name.

References

http://api.votesmart.org/docs/Rating.html Use State.getStateIDs() to get a list of state IDs. Use Rating.getCategories() or Rating.getCandidateRating() to get category IDs.

Examples

# First, make sure your personal PVS API key is saved as character string in the pvs.key variable:
pvs.key <- "yourkey"
# get a list of special interest groups for certain categories and states
sig <- Rating.getSigList(categoryId=list(2,4,5,7))
sig