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readabs

0.4.30Package record

Download and Tidy Time Series Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics

0packages depend
28.4Kdownloads / year
83.8%test coverage
11/13flavors OK

Overview

About

Downloads, imports, and tidies time series data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/.

Changes in 0.4.30
  • BREAKING CHANGE to read_cpi() in light of changes to the CPI (move to monthly collection). Now has a frequency argument that controls whether the quarterly or monthly data is returned.

From NEWS.md in the release

Install

Health

CRAN checks
2ERROR11OK
Check messages
ERRORexamplesr-oldrel-windows-x86_64, r-patched-linux-x86_64

r-oldrel-windows-x86_64

Running examples in 'readabs-Ex.R' failed
The error most likely occurred in:

> ### Name: get_available_lfs_cubes
> ### Title: Show the available Labour Force, Australia, detailed data cubes
> ###   that can be downloaded
> ### Aliases: get_available_lfs_cubes
> 
> ### ** Examples
> 
> 
> get_available_lfs_cubes()
URL does not seem to exist: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release
Here's the original error message:
cannot open URL 'https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release'Error in `path_to_connection()`:
! 'D:\temp\2026_10_21_01_50_00_6553\RtmpghyCx5/temp_readabs.html' does
  not exist.
Backtrace:
     ▆
  1. └─readabs::get_available_lfs_cubes()
  2.   └─readabs::get_available_files("labour-force-australia-detailed")
  3.     └─readabs::show_available_files(...)
  4.       ├─xml2::read_html(temp_page_location)
  5.       └─xml2:::read_html.default(temp_page_location)
  6.         ├─base::suppressWarnings(...)
  7.         │ └─base::withCallingHandlers(...)
  8.         ├─xml2::read_xml(x, encoding = encoding, ..., as_html = TRUE, options = options)
  9.         └─xml2:::read_xml.character(...)
 10.           └─xml2:::path_to_connection(x)
 11.             └─xml2:::check_path(path)
 12.               └─cli::cli_abort(msg, call = call)
 13.                 └─rlang::abort(...)
Execution halted

r-patched-linux-x86_64

Running examples in ‘readabs-Ex.R’ failed
The error most likely occurred in:

> base::assign(".ptime", proc.time(), pos = "CheckExEnv")
> ### Name: get_available_lfs_cubes
> ### Title: Show the available Labour Force, Australia, detailed data cubes
> ###   that can be downloaded
> ### Aliases: get_available_lfs_cubes
> 
> ### ** Examples
> 
> 
> get_available_lfs_cubes()
URL does not seem to exist: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release
Here's the original error message:
cannot open URL 'https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release'Error in `path_to_connection()`:
! '/home/hornik/tmp/scratch/RtmplRnoO9/temp_readabs.html' does not
  exist.
Backtrace:
     ▆
  1. └─readabs::get_available_lfs_cubes()
  2.   └─readabs::get_available_files("labour-force-australia-detailed")
  3.     └─readabs::show_available_files(...)
  4.       ├─xml2::read_html(temp_page_location)
  5.       └─xml2:::read_html.default(temp_page_location)
  6.         ├─base::suppressWarnings(...)
  7.         │ └─base::withCallingHandlers(...)
  8.         ├─xml2::read_xml(x, encoding = encoding, ..., as_html = TRUE, options = options)
  9.         └─xml2:::read_xml.character(...)
 10.           └─xml2:::path_to_connection(x)
 11.             └─xml2:::check_path(path)
 12.               └─cli::cli_abort(msg, call = call)
 13.                 └─rlang::abort(...)
Execution halted
ERRORtestsr-oldrel-windows-x86_64, r-patched-linux-x86_64

r-oldrel-windows-x86_64

Running 'testthat.R' [10s]
Running the tests in 'tests/testthat.R' failed.
Complete output:
  > library(testthat)
  > library(readabs)
  Environment variable 'R_READABS_PATH' is unset. Downloaded files will be saved in a temporary directory.
  You can set 'R_READABS_PATH' at any time. To set it for the rest of this session, use
  	Sys.setenv(R_READABS_PATH = <path>)
  > 
  > test_check("readabs")
  Saving _problems/test-download_data_cube-16.R
  Saving _problems/test-read_erp-2.R
  Saving _problems/test-read_erp-18.R
  [ FAIL 3 | WARN 3 | SKIP 35 | PASS 61 ]
  
  ══ Skipped tests (35) ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  • On CRAN (35): 'test-abs_api.R:2:3', 'test-abs_api.R:16:3',
    'test-abs_api.R:46:3', 'test-abs_api.R:55:3', 'test-check_latest_date.R:2:3',
    'test-data-uptodate.R:2:3', 'test-data-uptodate.R:15:3',
    'test-download-data-cube.r:4:3', 'test-download_abs.R:2:3',
    'test-download_data_cube.R:2:3', 'test-fst.R:2:3',
    'test-get_available_
...[truncated]...
tings.
  Backtrace:
      ▆
   1. └─readabs::read_lfs_datacube("MRM1") at test-download_data_cube.R:16:3
   2.   └─readabs::download_abs_data_cube(...)
   3.     └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
  ── Error ('test-read_erp.R:2:3'): read_erp() works ─────────────────────────────
  Error in `check_abs_connection()`: R cannot access the ABS website. Please check your internet connection and security settings.
  Backtrace:
      ▆
   1. └─readabs::read_erp() at test-read_erp.R:2:3
   2.   └─readabs::read_abs(...)
   3.     └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
  ── Error ('test-read_erp.R:18:3'): tidy_erp() works with all permutations of parameters ──
  Error in `check_abs_connection()`: R cannot access the ABS website. Please check your internet connection and security settings.
  Backtrace:
      ▆
   1. └─readabs::read_abs("3101.0") at test-read_erp.R:18:3
   2.   └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
  
  [ FAIL 3 | WARN 3 | SKIP 35 | PASS 61 ]
  Error:
  ! Test failures.
  Execution halted

r-patched-linux-x86_64

Running ‘testthat.R’ [6s/13s]
Running the tests in ‘tests/testthat.R’ failed.
Complete output:
  > library(testthat)
  > library(readabs)
  Environment variable 'R_READABS_PATH' is unset. Downloaded files will be saved in a temporary directory.
  You can set 'R_READABS_PATH' at any time. To set it for the rest of this session, use
  	Sys.setenv(R_READABS_PATH = <path>)
  > 
  > test_check("readabs")
  Saving _problems/test-download_data_cube-16.R
  Saving _problems/test-read_erp-2.R
  Saving _problems/test-read_erp-18.R
  [ FAIL 3 | WARN 3 | SKIP 35 | PASS 61 ]
  
  ══ Skipped tests (35) ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  • On CRAN (35): 'test-abs_api.R:2:3', 'test-abs_api.R:16:3',
    'test-abs_api.R:46:3', 'test-abs_api.R:55:3', 'test-check_latest_date.R:2:3',
    'test-data-uptodate.R:2:3', 'test-data-uptodate.R:15:3',
    'test-download-data-cube.r:4:3', 'test-download_abs.R:2:3',
    'test-download_data_cube.R:2:3', 'test-fst.R:2:3',
    'test-get_availab
...[truncated]...
tings.
  Backtrace:
      ▆
   1. └─readabs::read_lfs_datacube("MRM1") at test-download_data_cube.R:16:3
   2.   └─readabs::download_abs_data_cube(...)
   3.     └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
  ── Error ('test-read_erp.R:2:3'): read_erp() works ─────────────────────────────
  Error in `check_abs_connection()`: R cannot access the ABS website. Please check your internet connection and security settings.
  Backtrace:
      ▆
   1. └─readabs::read_erp() at test-read_erp.R:2:3
   2.   └─readabs::read_abs(...)
   3.     └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
  ── Error ('test-read_erp.R:18:3'): tidy_erp() works with all permutations of parameters ──
  Error in `check_abs_connection()`: R cannot access the ABS website. Please check your internet connection and security settings.
  Backtrace:
      ▆
   1. └─readabs::read_abs("3101.0") at test-read_erp.R:18:3
   2.   └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
  
  [ FAIL 3 | WARN 3 | SKIP 35 | PASS 61 ]
  Error:
  ! Test failures.
  Execution halted

CRAN check page ↗

Slowest check: 4.4 min · r-release-windows-x86_64
Status changes
  • ERROR11 OK, 2 ERROR2026-10-22
  • OK13 OK2026-09-12
  • ERROR12 OK, 1 ERROR2026-09-11
  • OK13 OK2026-08-05
  • NOTE12 OK, 1 NOTE2026-08-01
Show 7 earlier changesHide 7 earlier changes
  • OK13 OK2026-06-09
  • ERROR12 OK, 1 ERROR2026-06-08
  • OK13 OK2026-05-02
  • ERROR11 OK, 1 ERROR2026-04-25
  • OK14 OK2026-04-22
  • ERROR13 OK, 1 ERROR2026-04-18
  • OK14 OK2026-03-10
Advisories

none known

Documentation

In release 0.4.30
READMEYes · 1,272 wordsVignettesYes · 1 · dynamicNEWSYes · 100% structured · mentions 0.4.30Citation fileNo
Help pages
29 (4 internal)
Examples that run
20%4 run in a plain check · 2 only when donttest examples are enabled (R CMD check --as-cran) · 14 never run
Exported functions with examples
83%
Documented parameters
87%
Return-value docs
58%
Help pages citing references
0%
Vignettes (1)

Downloads

28.4K
CRAN downloads in the past year
Rank #3,046 · ~78/day · ~2.4K/mo
Daily download trend is not available in this view yet.
1.2K30 days
4.3K90 days
28.4K1 year
Compare downloads with other packages →
Also on156 r2u4 autocran153 c2d4u

Repository

112Stars
28Forks
15Open issues
2Open PRs
21Releases
387Commits
13Commit identities
abstidy-datastatisticstime-seriesaustraliaaustralian-dataaustralian-bureau-of-statistics
387 commits · Last activity 2026-05-15 · +0.9% stars, 30d
Responsiveness
How these are sampled
PRs merged (all time)
95%
Median days to close, 50 most recently updated closed issues
6
Median days to close, 50 most recently updated closed PRs
1

Stars over time

2025-09-11 · 1072026-10-05 · 112
PracticesBeta

10 development-tooling and community-health practices detected across 6 families in the upstream repository

Checks run against github.com/mattcowgill/readabs on 2026-10-21.

Continuous integration (2)
GitHub ActionsR CMD check workflow

The R CMD check workflow runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, and on R-devel

Docs source (4)
README.Rmdpkgdown

GitHub Pages site last deployed 2026-05-15 · The repository has a site deploy workflow

Coverage (1)
Coverage reporting
Reproducibility and dev environment (1)
data-raw/
Show all practicesHide 2 practices
CRAN release process (1)
cran-comments.md
Lint, format, editor (1)
RStudio project
How this is detected·Detection ruleset v4 (2026-10-20)

Dependencies

Declared dependencies
18 external dependencies (excludes base and recommended)

Installing readabs adds 52 packages (31 with compiled code, 35 MB of source tarballs). Heaviest: stringi 11 MB, data.table 5.7 MB, readxl 2.1 MB.

Depends (1)
R >= 3.5
LinkingTo (0)
none
Enhances (0)
none
Reverse dependencies
0direct
0indirect

Nothing depends on this yet.

People & History

People (8)
Author, Maintainer since 0.2.9 (2019) · added in 0.2.9
Author · added in 0.4.0
Author
Author
Contributor · added in 0.4.14
Contributor · added in 0.4.18
Contributor · added in 0.4.18
Contributor · added in 0.4.2

Previously maintained by Zoe Meers (0.2.1).

Releases (27)

Pick two releases to compare their code metrics.

  • 0.4.30Latest
    record
    2026-05-17 · current release · diff ↗
  • R
    R 4.6.0 released · 2026-04-24
  • 0.4.20
    record
    2026-01-07 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.19
    record
    2025-05-18 · diff ↗
  • R
    R 4.5.0 released · 2025-04-11
  • 0.4.18
    record
    2025-03-02 · diff ↗ ·
    added 1 export
    read_erp
  • 0.4.16
    record
    2024-05-27 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.15
    record
    2024-05-27 · diff ↗ ·
    added 2 exports
    get_available_lfs_cubes, read_lfs_datacube
  • R
    R 4.4.0 released · 2024-04-24
  • 0.4.14
    record
    2023-08-08 · diff ↗ ·
    added 4 exports
    read_api, read_api_dataflows, read_api_datastructure, read_api_url
  • R
    R 4.3.0 released · 2023-04-21
  • 0.4.13
    record
    2023-01-30 · diff ↗ ·
    added 2 exports
    read_abs_url, read_job_mobility
  • R
    R 4.2.0 released · 2022-04-22
  • 0.4.12
    record
    2022-04-15 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.11
    record
    2021-12-17 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.10
    record
    2021-10-28 · diff ↗
Show 20 earlier eventsHide 20 earlier events
  • 0.4.9
    record
    2021-05-24 · diff ↗ ·
    removed 1 export
    read_abs_sdmx
    added 6 exports
    check_latest_date, read_abs_series, read_lfs_grossflows, search_catalogues, search_files, show_available_files
  • R
    R 4.1.0 released · 2021-05-18
  • 0.4.8
    record
    2021-02-09 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.6.900
    record
    2020-12-15 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.6
    record
    2020-11-20 · diff ↗ ·
    added 2 exports
    read_awe, read_payrolls
  • 0.4.5.1
    record
    2020-10-14 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.5
    record
    2020-10-04 · diff ↗ ·
    removed 1 export
    get_abs
    added 2 exports
    get_available_files, show_available_catalogues
  • 0.4.3.3
    record
    2020-09-16 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.3.2
    record
    2020-08-30 · diff ↗ ·
    added 1 export
    download_abs_data_cube
  • R
    R 4.0.0 released · 2020-04-24
  • 0.4.3
    record
    2019-12-04 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.2
    record
    2019-10-08 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.1
    record
    2019-08-20 · diff ↗
  • 0.4.0
    record
    2019-06-07 · diff ↗ ·
    added 2 exports
    read_cpi, separate_series
  • 0.3.1
    record
    2019-05-22 · diff ↗
  • R
    R 3.6.0 released · 2019-04-26
  • 0.3.0
    record
    2019-02-01 · diff ↗ ·
    removed 1 export
    pattern:^[[:alpha:]]+
    added 9 exports
    extract_abs_sheets, get_abs, read_abs, read_abs_data, read_abs_local, read_abs_metadata, read_abs_sdmx, tidy_abs, tidy_abs_list
  • 0.2.9
    record
    2019-01-14 · diff ↗
  • 0.2.1
    record
    2018-06-04
  • R
    R 3.5.0 released · 2018-04-23

Package metadata

First published
2018-06-04
Total releases
27 / 8 yrs
License
MIT + file LICENSE OSI
Minimum R
≥ 3.5
Download size
3.2 MB

Cite

Cite this package

Run in R for the authors' preferred citation:

citation("readabs")
Cowgill, M., Behr, K., Diviny, D., Lee, J., Markham, F., Meers, Z., Moore, A., & Parsonage, H. (2026). readabs: Download and Tidy Time Series Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (Version 0.4.30) [Computer software]. https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.readabs

This package has no citation file, so citation() returns this entry built from DESCRIPTION.

Cite the R Observatory

For a number measured here: a download total, a coverage figure, an archival date.

APA

Balamuta, J. J. (2026). R Observatory: Metrics for readabs version 0.4.30 [Data set]. HJJB, LLC. Data release v2026-10-23. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21843040

From data release v2026-10-23, which the citation names so these numbers can be found later. More on citing and the projects behind them.

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