User Guide

Searching IDI variables

Typing a keyword(s) in the search box will list all agencies, collections, datasets, or variables containing the term in any of the information associated with it.

Click on ‘Data Supply Agencies’, ‘Collections’, ‘Datasets’ or ‘Variables’ if you want to search for keywords within those fields.

Currently, the search only does an 'AND' search by simply separating search terms with spaces. For example, "social housing" will find results that match both "social" and "housing".

Exploring variables

Click on rows in the table to view structural metadata about each variable, including the schema and table names required for SQL queries. The green dot beside collections, datasets, and variables indicates that metadata describing the data are available in the Search App.

Navigating the app

You can also look for information of your interest by manually navigating through the four tables: Data Supply Agencies, Collections, Datasets and Variables. Click a table name, and you will first see the top-level information for that table. When you further click the rows within the table, it will take you to the next level down.

The information is nested in the following way:

flowchart TB; A[Data Supply Agencies]-->B[Collections]; B-->C[Datasets]; C-->D[Variables];

Data Supply Agencies

Lists the names of agencies that have supplied the data added to the Integrated Data Infrastructure. By clicking an agency, you can view all the collections of datasets that the specific agency supplies.

Collections

Lists the names of collections, which represents datasets that are grouped together under the same set or collection. The collection names are taken directly from the Data Dictionary or are given a sensible name if the Data Dictionary is unavailable. By clicking a collection, you can view all datasets that sit under the collection.

Datasets

Lists the datasets that are present in the latest refresh and the IDI_Adhoc database as of the latest extract by Stats NZ. By clicking a dataset, you can view all variables for that dataset.

Variables

Lists the variables contained in all the datasets extracted from the IDI.

IDI Search

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