R: Query and download from the Nexus network repository

nexus {igraph}

R Documentation

Query and download from the Nexus network repository

Description

The Nexus network repository is an online collection of network data sets. These functions can be used to query it and download data from it, directly as an igraph graph.

Usage

nexus.list(tags=NULL, offset=0, limit=10,
           operator=c("or", "and"),
           order=c("date", "name", "popularity"),
           nexus.url=getIgraphOpt("nexus.url"))
nexus.info(id, nexus.url=getIgraphOpt("nexus.url"))
nexus.get(id, offset=0, order=c("date", "name", "popularity"),
          nexus.url=getIgraphOpt("nexus.url"))
nexus.search(q, offset=0, limit=10,
             order=c("date", "name", "popularity"),
             nexus.url=getIgraphOpt("nexus.url"))

## S3 method for class 'nexusDatasetInfo'
print(x, ...)
## S3 method for class 'nexusDatasetInfoList'
summary(object, ...)
## S3 method for class 'nexusDatasetInfoList'
print(x, ...)

Arguments

`tags`	A character vector, the tags that are searched. If not given (or `NULL`), then all datasets are listed.
`offset`	An offset to select part of the results. Results are listed from `offset`+1.
`limit`	The maximum number of results to return.
`operator`	A character scalar. If ‘or’ (the default), then all datasets that have at least one of the given tags, are returned. If it if ‘and’, then only datasets that have all the given tags, are returned.
`order`	The ordering of the results, possible values are: ‘date’, ‘name’, ‘popularity’.
`id`	The numeric or character id of the data set to query or download. Instead of the data set ids, it is possible to supply a `nexusDatasetInfo` or `nexusDatasetInfoList` object here directly and then the query is done on the corresponding data set(s).
`q`	Nexus search string. See examples below. For the complete documentation please see the Nexus homepage at http://nexus.igraph.org.
`nexus.url`	The URL of the Nexus server. Don't change this from the default, unless you set up your own Nexus server.
`x,object`	The `nexusDatasetInfo` object to print.
`...`	Currently ignored.

Details

Nexus is an online repository of networks, with an API that allow programatic queries against it, and programatic data download as well.

The nexus.list and nexus.info functions query the online database. They both return nexusDatasetInfo objects. nexus.info returns more information than nexus.list.

nexus.search searches Nexus, and returns a list of data sets, as nexusDatasetInfo objects. See below for some search examples.

nexus.get downloads a data set from Nexus, based on its numeric id, or based on a Nexus search string. For search strings, only the first search hit is downloaded, but see also the offset argument. (If there are not data sets found, then the function returns an error.)

The nexusDatasetInfo objects returned by nexus.list have the following fields:

id: The numeric id of the dataset.
sid: The character id of the dataset.
name: Character scalar, the name of the dataset.
vertices/edges: Character, the number of vertices and edges in the graph(s). Vertices and edges are separated by a slash, and if the data set consists of multiple networks, then they are separated by spaces.
tags: Character vector, the tags of the dataset. Directed graph have the tags ‘directed’. Undirected graphs are tagged as ‘undirected’. Other common tags are: ‘weighted’, ‘bipartite’, ‘social network’, etc.
networks: The ids and names of the networks in the data set. The numeric and character id are separated by a slash, and multiple networks are separated by spaces.

nexusDatasetInfo objects returned by nexus.info have the following additional fields:

date

Character scalar, e.g. ‘2011-01-09’, the date when the dataset was added to the database.

formats

Character vector, the data formats in which the data set is available. The various formats are separated by semicolons.

licence

Character scalar, the licence of the dataset.

licence url

Character scalar, the URL of the licence of the dataset. Pleaase make sure you consult this before using a dataset.

summary

Character scalar, the short description of the dataset, this is usually a single sentence.

description

Character scalar, the full description of the dataset.

citation

Character scalar, the paper(s) describing the dataset. Please cite these papers if you are using the dataset in your research, the licence of most datasets requires this.

attributes

A list of lists, each list entry is a graph, vertex or edge attribute and has the following entries:

type: Type of the attribute, either ‘graph’, ‘vertex’ or ‘edge’.
datatype: Data type of the attribute, currently it can be ‘numeric’ and ‘string’.
name: Character scalar, the name of the attribute.
description: Character scalar, the description of the attribute.

The results of the Nexus queries are printed to the screen in a consise format, similar to the format of igraph graphs. A data set list (typically the result of nexus.list and nexus.search) looks like this:

NEXUS 1-5/18 -- data set list
[1] kaptail.4         39/109-223   #18 Kapferer tailor shop
[2] condmatcollab2003 31163/120029 #17 Condensed matter collaborations+
[3] condmatcollab     16726/47594  #16 Condensed matter collaborations+
[4] powergrid         4941/6594    #15 Western US power grid
[5] celegansneural    297/2359     #14 C. Elegans neural network

Each line here represents a data set, and the following information is given about them: the character id of the data set (e.g. kaptail or powergrid), the number of vertices and number of edges in the graph of the data sets. For data sets with multiple graphs, intervals are given here. Then the numeric id of the data set and the reamining space is filled with the name of the data set. Summary information about an individual Nexus data set is printed as

NEXUS B--- 39 109-223 #18 kaptail -- Kapferer tailor shop
+ tags: directed; social network; undirected
+ nets: 1/KAPFTI2; 2/KAPFTS2; 3/KAPFTI1; 4/KAPFTS1

This is very similar to the header that is used for printing igraph graphs, but there are some differences as well. The four characters after the NEXUS word give the most important properties of the graph(s): the first is ‘U’ for undirected and ‘D’ for directed graphs, and ‘B’ if the data set contains both directed and undirected graphs. The second is ‘N’ named graphs. The third character is ‘W’ for weighted graphs, the fourth is ‘B’ if the data set contains bipartite graphs. Then the number of vertices and number of edges are printed, for data sets with multiple graphs, the smallest and the largest values are given. Then comes the numeric id, and the string id of the data set. The end of the first line contains the name of the data set. The second row lists the data set tags, and the third row the networks that are included in the data set. Detailed data set information is printed similarly, but it contains more fields.

Value

nexus.list and nexus.search return a list of nexusDatasetInfo objects. The list also has these attributes:

size: The number of data sets returned by the query.
totalsize: The total number of data sets found for the query.
offset: The offset parameter of the query.
limit: The limit parameter of the query.

nexus.info returns a single nexusDatasetInfo object.

nexus.get returns an igraph graph object, or a list of graph objects, if the data set consists of multiple networks.

Author(s)

Gabor Csardi csardi.gabor@gmail.com

Examples

## Not run: nexus.list(tag="weighted")
nexus.list(limit=3, order="name")
nexus.list(limit=3, order="name")[[1]]
nexus.info(2)
g <- nexus.get(2)
summary(g)

## Data sets related to 'US':
nexus.search("US")

## Search for data sets that have 'network' in their name:
nexus.search("name:network")

## Any word can match
nexus.search("blog or US or karate")

## End(Not run)

[Package igraph version 0.7.0 Index]