diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index e2a4e28..2636cab 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,2 +1,23 @@ -# betterwithdata_cleaning_4 +# MEPS Data Scraping +### A product of [Get Better With Data](http://getbetterwithdata.com/) Team 4 Get Better With Data Hackathon - Team 4 Cleaning - Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Scraping + +---- + +# Using the data + +All data is located in the `/data` folder as CSV files. There are two types: +- Non-Enhanced: Raw data converted from MEPS into a plain CSV +- Enhanced: Values for flags added to the dataset + +# Using the scripts + +To fetch more data from MEPS, you need R. The important functions are located in `/scripts/puf_download.R`. You can download data for any dataset if you have the PUF (ex: `HC-175E`). An example usage is as follows: + +``` +short_puf <- shorten_puf("HC-175E") +download_puf(short_puf) +# The file h175e.csv will be created in the current directory +``` + +All PUF files, regardless of what dataset they come from, can be downloaded through this command.