Download the comprehensive ZIP code database

The bundled zip_code_db is the lightweight ("simple") dataset. A much larger companion database with detailed ACS demographic profiles per ZIP code (the "comprehensive" database, ~450 MB SQLite) is published as a checksum-pinned asset of a zipcodeR data release rather than shipped in the package. Its public URL, checksum, and SQLite integrity have passed a clean-machine smoke test.

download_comprehensive_data(force = FALSE)

Arguments

force

If TRUE, re-download even if a verified copy is cached.

Value

Invisibly, the path to the downloaded SQLite database. Query it with DBI/RSQLite, e.g. DBI::dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), download_comprehensive_data()).

Details

This function downloads that database, verifies its SHA256 checksum, and, on R 4.0 or newer, caches it under tools::R_user_dir("zipcodeR", "data"); later calls return the cached path immediately. On older supported R versions the verified file is kept only in the session temporary directory. It never downloads without being called explicitly. For offline use on R 4.0 or newer, copy the file to that user data directory yourself (the expected file name is the asset name from the data release).

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
path <- download_comprehensive_data()
} # }