Tags: Every single dataset on Quandl is available via our API. The API is simple, consistent and completely free to use. Here’s a quick and easy guide to get you started.
This is not meant to be a formal reference for the Quandl API; merely a quick-start guide. To read the complete and definitive documentation, please click here.
To start using the Quandl API:
Sign up for a free API key
Synopsis
Here is an API call for FB stock data in CSV format:
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/FB/data.csv
Here is the same call, with some additional parameters appended:
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/FB/data.csv?column_index=4&exclude_column_names=true&rows=3&start_date=2012-11-01&end_date=2013-11-30&order=asc&collapse=quarterly&transform=rdiff
The second call gets FB stock data, but only column 4 (closing prices); it skips column names, truncates the data at 3 rows, selects only data between 2012-11-01 and 2013-11-30, arranges the dates in ascending order, down-samples daily data to quarterly, and computes percentage changes.
API usage is free for registered users; just append your API key to your call like this: You can find your API key on your Quandl account settings page. (For concision, we will not be including the api_key parameter in the remaining examples on this page). To download a dataset, you will need to know its “Quandl code”. In the above example, you downloaded a dataset with the Quandl code “WIKI/FB”. Every Quandl code has 2 parts: the database code (“WIKI”) which specifies where the data comes from, and the dataset code (“FB”) which identifies the specific time series you want. You can find Quandl codes on our website, using our data browser. You can get data in CSV, XML or JSON formats. Just append your preferred format to your Quandl code. You can customize the data you receive by passing optional parameters with your API call. Here are some of the available options: to specify the order in which data is returned and/or to return only data from column m to return only the first n rows of data to return only data rows in CSV to sample observations at your desired frequency Use to get changes, % changes, cumulative sums, or returns from 100 To see a full list of options and their detailed behaviour, please visit our API reference. You can use the API to get metadata for the dataset you need, in JSON format, like this: Or if you prefer XML format, like this: You can get both data and metadata in one call like this: Or this: For premium (subscriber-only) databases, you can download the entire database in a single call, like this: If you just want the last day’s worth of data, do this: For a list of all databases on Quandl, do this: For a list of datasets in a given database, do this: This is not meant to be a complete reference for the Quandl API. See our full API documentation for that.https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/FB/data.csv?api_key=YOURAPIKEYHERE
Quandl Codes
Data Formats
CSV
.csv
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/FB/data.csv
XML
.xml
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/FB/data.xml
JSON
.json
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/FB/data.json
Data Manipulation
Sort Order
Use
"order=asc|desc"
Date Range
Use
"start_date=yyyy-mm-dd"
"end_date=yyyy-mm-dd"
Specific Columns
Use
"column_index=m"
Truncated Rows
Use
"rows=n"
Data Only
Use
"exclude_column_names=true"
Data Frequency
Use
"collapse=none|daily|weekly|monthly|quarterly|annual"
Data Arithmetic
Use
"transform=none|diff|rdiff|cumul|normalize"
Getting Metadata
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/FB/metadata.json
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/FB/metadata.xml
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/FB.json
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/FB.xml
Downloading Lots of Data in One Call
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/databases/YC/data?download_type=complete
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/databases/YC/data?download_type=partial
Getting a list of datasets or databases
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/databases
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/databases/WIKI/codes.json
Full Reference
Hi There, I cannot seem to get the start and end_date parameters to have any effect on what is returned. example:
https://www.quandl.com/api/v1/datasets/CHRIS/ICE_B1.json?start_date=2016-01-01&end_date=2017-11-31
I’ve tried excluding the end_date, adding other parameters like collapse. Also restricting the rows doesn’t seem to have any effect on performance in terms of the time it takes to return the data. Thanks for any help!
Hi Rich,
Thanks for your question.
Your API call uses the v1 API and we are now at v3. Also, there is no 31st day of November, so the end_date should be modified to 2017-11-30. Please try this API call instead:
https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/CHRIS/ICE_B1.json?start_date=2016-01-01&end_date=2017-11-30
Hope this helps.
A little late but does anyone know how to exclude the date column? For example, if i want a single price I think I can use
It returns “2017-11-06 180.17” but i only want the price.
Hi Ryan,
When using the API, it is not possible to exclude the date column. It is always returned.
However, if you use the Quandl Excel add-in, you can choose to exclude the date column. See instructional videos for our add-in here: https://docs.quandl.com/docs/excel-time-series. See the list of parameters and how you can choose “False” for the date parameter so that the date column is excluded. You can download our add-in from https://www.quandl.com/tools/excel.
[…] Quandl (open data: finance, stock prices, demographics, housing, …) […]
Simultaneously, how many times can I call a free API(can be different). Also what are the daily limits for a free user?
Hi Saif,
Please visit the following link which shows a break-down of API usage: http://help.quandl.com/article/68-is-there-a-rate-limit-or-speed-limit-for-api-usage
Hi,
I am trying to connect to Quandl via R but I get this error message:
Error in curl::curl_fetch_memory(url, handle = handle) :
Couldn’t connect to server
How do I fix this?
Thanks
Hi Jack,
You most likely are experiencing a firewall issue. You can ask your network administrator for your proxy settings and use this code to bypass them:
library(httr)
set_config(
use_proxy(url=”18.91.12.23″, port=8080, username=”user”,password=”password”)
)
Hope this helps.
Excellent API service, and very well documented.
Thanks for giving this away for free! 🙂
Glad you like it!
Hi. I have a query. I want end of day prices (for a given day only) for a list of stocks in one API call either in excel, json or xml format. Currently I am making one dataset API call for each stock (using dataset_code) which is not an effective way of fetching data. I need following values, OPEN, HIGH,LOW,LAST,TOTTRDQTY and TOTTRDVAL for a list of 100 stocks in a single API call.What is the best way to go about doing it?
Hi – if you are using a premium database, you can use the bulk download feature to accomplish this. Otherwise you have to make single api calls. Can you kindly confirm the name or code of the database you are working with? I might be able to offer additional suggestions based on the database.
Hi. I wonder how do I get certain columns?
EG: column_index=1,3,5
Hello –
The best way to do this is to get the whole dataset and then remove the columns you don’t need. There is no way to just get the three columns.
Hi,
Can you tell me if this
“Quandl objects can also be configured via the .configure(options) method. Here is an exmaple:
var Quandl = require(“quandl”);
var quandl = new Quandl();
var options = {
auth_token: “dsahFHUiewjjd”
}
quandl.configure(options);”
should be in an app.js file? Or should it be in its own file?
Thanks
Hi Sandy – Thanks for reaching out.
You are referencing a third party integration that was written by someone outside of Quandl.
Your best bet is to visit https://github.com/normanjoyner/node-quandl/issues and get support directly from the creator of the integration.
[…] our quick start guide to learn our API syntax, or go to our documentation portal for a full […]
how can only present trade values …….please help me….
example i am dsplaying https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/WIKI/AAPL/data.csv?end_date=2016-02-23 , i need to display present updating values
Hello Ravinder! I’m not sure I completely understand your question. Can you kindly e-mail us at connect@quandl.com with some additional information so that we can better assist?
I have a concern do I need an api key from quandl to use plot.y.
Hello Craig! You would not need an api key to view data on plot.ly. You can simply click on the plot.ly button from any dataset page to access the data.
[…] we launched the marketplace, our API served 15 million dataset downloads a month. Today, we serve that many every single […]