Convenient Access to NYS Open Data API Endpoints

Provides helper functions to access datasets from the NYS Open Data platform < https://data.ny.gov/>. Functions return results as tidy tibbles and support optional filtering, sorting, and row limits via the Socrata API.

nysOpenData

nysOpenData provides simple, reproducible access to datasets from the NY State Open Data platform — directly from R, with no API keys or manual downloads required. The package is available on CRAN.

Version 0.1.3 introduces a streamlined, catalog-driven interface for NYS Open Data.

The package provides three core functions:

nys_list_datasets() — Browse available datasets from the live nys Open Data catalog
nys_pull_dataset() — Pull any cataloged dataset by key, with filtering, ordering, and optional date controls
nys_any_dataset() — Pull any NYS Open Data dataset directly via its Socrata JSON endpoint

Datasets pulled via nys_pull_dataset() automatically apply sensible defaults from the catalog (such as default ordering and date fields), while still allowing user control over:

limit
filters
date / from / to
where
order
clean_names
coerce_types

This redesign reduces maintenance burden, improves extensibility, and provides a more scalable interface for working with nys Open Data.

All functions return clean tibble outputs and support filtering via
filters = list(field = "value").

Installation

From CRAN

install.packages("nysOpenData")

Development version (GitHub)

devtools::install_github("martinezc1/nysOpenData")

Example

library(nysOpenData)

data <- nys_pull_dataset(dataset = "lottery_cash_4_life_winning_numbers_beginning_2014", limit = 5000)

head(data)

## # A tibble: 6 × 3
##   draw_date           winning_numbers cash_ball
##   <dttm>              <chr>               <dbl>
## 1 2026-02-21 00:00:00 20 25 30 52 55          4
## 2 2026-02-20 00:00:00 02 28 49 50 56          1
## 3 2026-02-19 00:00:00 51 54 57 59 60          3
## 4 2026-02-18 00:00:00 03 28 38 40 49          1
## 5 2026-02-17 00:00:00 11 22 32 56 60          4
## 6 2026-02-16 00:00:00 02 11 14 15 22          1

About

nysOpenData makes New York State’s civic datasets accessible to students,
educators, analysts, and researchers through a unified and user-friendly R interface.
Developed to support reproducible research, open-data literacy, and real-world analysis.

Comparison to Other Software

While the RSocrata package provides a general interface for any Socrata-backed portal, nysOpenData is specifically tailored for New York State Open Data.

This package is part of a broader ecosystem of tools for working with New York open data:

nycOpenData — streamlined access to NYC Open Data
nysOpenData — streamlined access to NY State Open Data
mtaOpenData — streamlined access to MTA-related NY State Open Data
chiOpenData — streamlined access to Chicago-related City Open Data
laOpenData — streamlined access to Los Angeles-related City Open Data

Together, these packages provide a consistent, user-friendly interface for working with civic data across jurisdictions.

Ease of Use: No need to hunt for 4x4 dataset IDs (e.g., kwxv-fwze); use catalog-based keys instead.
Open Literacy: Designed specifically for students and researchers to lower the barrier to entry for civic data analysis.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! If you find a bug or would like to request a wrapper for a specific nys dataset, please open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.