Queries using SODA3

The Socrata APIs provide rich query functionality through a query language we call the “Socrata Query Language” or “SoQL”. As its name might suggest, it borrows heavily from Structured Query Language (SQL), used by many relational database systems. Its paradigms should be familiar to most developers who have previously worked with SQL, and are easy to learn for those who are new to it.

Requests must be either authenticated by a user or marked with a valid application token. Developers should now use the HTTP POST method when requesting queries, as this allows for longer queries and clearer options.

The endpoints are split into two:

• /query for querying (e.g., https://data.cityofchicago.org/api/v3/views/ydr8-5enu/query.json) Query has more options for customizing the request so that you can fine-tune what data you want back.
• /export for exports (e.g., https://data.cityofchicago.org/api/v3/views/ydr8-5enu/export.csv) Export focuses on providing the entire dataset to be consumed by humans or Microsoft Excel or similar programs.

You can click on each option to see more information about them:

Example

You might use the popular program cURL to make the request with the appropriate payload, or use an appropriate HTTP client library in your preferred programming language.

Query for the first 100 rows of a dataset:

curl --header 'X-App-Token: your-application-token' \
     --json '{
        "query": "SELECT *",
        "page": {
            "pageNumber": 1,
            "pageSize": 100
        },
        "includeSynthetic": false
     }' \
     https://soda.demo.socrata.com/api/v3/views/4tka-6guv/query.json

Export the dataset as CSV with a byte-order mark and a separator character of TAB:

curl --header 'X-App-Token: your-application-token' \
     --json '{
       "serializationOptions": {
         "separator": "\t",
         "bom": true
       }
     }' \
     https://soda.demo.socrata.com/api/v3/views/4tka-6guv/export.csv