census-pgeoloader 0.1.1


# census_pgeoloader

Command line utility to download Census TIGER/Line shapefiles by state from the U.S. Census Bureau and aggregate them into a single table in a PostGIS-enabled database.

# Requirements

Uses [shp2pgsql](http://www.bostongis.com/pgsql2shp_shp2pgsql_quickguide.bqg). Assumes PostgreSQL + PostGIS.

# To install

```bash
$ pip install census_pgeoloader
```

# To use

Pass a connection URI to your PostgreSQL database as well as the states you'd like to aggregate. This will dowload tract-level shapefiles by default.

```bash
$ pgeoloader postgres://postgres@localhost:5432/database KS MO TX VA ...
```

Valid values for states are FIPS codes, postal abbreviations or names. Pass `+` to collect all states.

# Options

```bash
Options:
-t, --table TEXT Name of table to create in DB. Default is
"census_shapes".
-p, --temp TEXT Directory to download files to. Default is
"./shapefiles"
-y, --year TEXT Year. Default is "2016".
-g, --geo [tract|group|block] Geographic unit. Default is "tract".
-s, --srid TEXT Specify an SRID transform, e.g., "4269:4326".
Default is "4269".
--help Show this message and exit.
```

#### Notes:

- `--table` Drops any existing table by that name in the database.
- `--geo` Can pull tracts, block groups or blocks.
- `--srid` Default SRID should be 4269, but you can specify a transform with this option as available in [shp2pgsql](http://www.bostongis.com/pgsql2shp_shp2pgsql_quickguide.bqg).

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