pvsR (version 0.1.1)

Votes.getBillsByStateRecent: Get a list of recent bills according to the state.

Description

This function is a wrapper for the Votes.getBillsByStateRecent() method of the PVS API Votes class which returns a list of recent bills according to the state. The maximum number of bills returned is 100. The function sends a request with this method to the PVS API for all states given as a function input, extracts the XML values from the returned XML file(s) and returns them arranged in one data frame.

Usage

Votes.getBillsByStateRecent(amount, state="NA")

Arguments

amount

(optional) the amount of bills returned (default: 100, max: 100)

state

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

Value

• A data frame with a row for each bill and columns with variables describing the bill. The returned data frame contains a row for each bill and columns with the following variables describing the bill: bills.bill*.billId, bills.bill*.billNumber, bills.bill*.title, bills.bill*.type.

References

http://api.votesmart.org/docs/Votes.html Use State.getStateIDs() to get a list of state 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 recent bills according to the state
recentbills <- Votes.getBillsByStateRecent(40,list("FL","NY"))
recentbills