st: Re: Web APIs and JSON file format reading

[Andrew Dyck <andrew@andrewdyck.com>]

Hi Stata users,

I'm interested in using Stata to access data from web APIs such as
data.worldbank.org or Twiter. I use 64-bit Stata MP for Windows and
Linux.

I'm aware of the -net-, -copy- and -webuse- commands, however, my
searches so far haven't uncovered any tools for reading in data
directly from an API. At this time it seems that this may not be
possible in Stata without using an external python or perl script.
However, if you have any experience in using JSON with Stata I'd be
very happy to hear from you.

I have begun research into writing a native Stata module (using mata)
for reading JSON data from a web API but I thought I'd tap the
Statalist knowledge bank first to:

1) stop me early if it's just not possible or already done;
2) suggest any strategies for how to go about this; and
3) see if there is any interest in such a feature or if users are
already using some other methods that would work better than something
native to Stata.

Any help, advice or links to more info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Andrew
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