Preparing CSV Data

Requirements

To add new data to OEPS, you must prepare a CSV file. Ultimately this CSV will be merged into existing files, and information about its content will be added to the registry. Before any of that happens though, the CSV data must be prepared with a few things in mind.

• MUST Use empty cells for "no data" values
  • Do not use NA
  • Keep in mind, a "no data" value is very different from 0!
• MUST Have column names in CamelCase
  • If the data already exists in OEPS (for a different year or geography) your column name must exactly match the name for that variable
  • Ideally, names will be 10 characters or less
  • If the data is completely new to OEPS, you will also need to create the variable
• MUST Include an appropriate join column for spatial joins
  • HEROP_ID, GEOID, and FIPS codes are all acceptable, see below for more info
• MUST contain values for only one year and only one geography level
• MAY contain values for multiple variables (i.e. a CSV can has as many columns as you need)

Configuring a join column

A join column serves as the linkage between the non-spatial CSV data and geographic data like county boundaries. To facilitate this linkage, any incoming CSV must have one of these columns:

Name	Geography	Description
HEROP_ID	all	A HEROP_ID is our version of GEOID, which also includes a "summary-level" code on the front of it, indicating what geography level the id refers to.
GEOID	all	For state, county, and tract data the GEOID is equivalent to the FIPS id. For ZCTA data, GEOID can match the zip code or ZCTA5 for each ZCTA.
FIPS	state, county, tract	FIPS ids are nested such that, for example, the 5-digit FIPS for a county includes the 2-digit FIPS for its state.
ZCTA5	zcta	5-digit zip code that corresponds with the zip code tabulation area.