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How to use the "Basic Selection" feature in the Data Query

comtrade_admin — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 05:34:16 GMT

How to use the "Basic Selection" feature in the Data Query?

Basic Selection is a sub-menu of "Data Query" in the UN Comtrade database.

This feature allows the user to build a query by selecting items from provided lists. This is considered as a traditional data selection tool.

Note: Basic Selection only in Internet Explorer v 6.0 and above.

Two methods for Basic Selection:

Method 1: Load Save Query (available only for subscribers)
You can load your saved query in 'step 0'

Method 2: Input/Select basic items query

Step 1 (Required): Select the commodity classification you are searching for. Description of the classification and its commodities listing can be found at:
http://comtrade.un.org/db/mr/rfCommoditiesList.aspx
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/registry/regct.asp?Lg=1

Should you need more information on how to choose the commodity classification, please refer to the following KB article: Which classification system is appropriate to use?

Step 2: Enter selection items

Commodities: Allows one to search for commodity by ‘commodity code’ or by ‘item/description’. For example you can search for ‘steel’ in HS2002. Searching by name yields several results and the user has the option to choose one or more which appear in the Select Items column. See figure below:

If you want to load your favorites, choose the right source in step.1. Special Items source enables selection of TOTAL, 1 digit code, 2 digit codes … etc.

Reporters, Partners, Years: Select one or more of each and click the ‘add’ button.

Others: This feature allows one to select the trade flow, filter by value, select a preset sort order, and choose the aggregation option desired. NOTE: Currently only one trade flow can be saved if you choose to save your query. Also, AutoBatch can be set to ‘full’ or ‘incremental’.

Step 3: Save Query (optional)

You can save your query for future use, and enable notification or AutoBatch.

Please review the following article regarding the above features for save query: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradekb/Knowledgebase/Saved-Query-Alert-and-Notification

Related questions:

Q: I often get "NO RECORDS", when running the data extraction. What could I do to avoid it?

A: Since not every country reports its trade data in the same classification, you have to make sure which classification is available for which countries or commodities or years. Please use "Data Availability" menu.

How to use the "Express Selection" feature in the Data Query

comtrade_admin — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 08:48:20 GMT

How to use the "Express Selection" feature in the Data Query?

Express Selection has similar functionality as Basic Selection in Data Query menu with the exception that codes are entered directly or can be selected from lookup tables.

In the Express Selection, however, there are two additional optional features, Step 0 and Step 3. The former allows for loading saved queries and the latter saves the selected query and enables notification. For further details on enabling notification see the following article on Query profile notification . Note that both optional features are available only to Comtrade subscribers.

Notes:

The empty value in the text box is considered as "All" value. It applies for Trade Flow as well. If you don't select anything, it will be considered as 'All'.
Each item could be saved to favorites by clicking the appropriate button.

Classification: Choose the appropriate classification for the commodities. For further explanation of which classification to use please see article 10149 in Comtrade Knowledge Base. In general, use older classifications (SITC, Rev. 1 and SITC, Rev. 2) to obtain long time-series and use the recent classification (HS2002 and HS1996) for more detailed information.

In the main selection, Step 1., enter Commodities, Reporters, Partners, Years and Trade Flow codes. See below for wildcard usage and definitions:

Commodities:

1. Options AG1, AG2, AG3, AG4, AG5 and AG6. These options will give you respectively all 1-digit codes (AG1), all 2-digit codes (AG2) , etcetera. Therefore, Option AG2 is equivalent to option DD of the Comtrade For Windows application.

2. Option LF. LF stands for Leaf. This option will give you in case of the SITC classification all the basic 4- or 5-digit commodity codes.

3. Option ?. You can use the question mark as a position holder. This means that if you ask ‘??’ this would be equivalent to AG2 and ??? is equivalent to AG3. Furthermore, you have the possibility of requesting, for instance, 27?? which is equivalent to asking 2701, 2702, 2703, 2704 to 2799 (if those commodity codes would all exist). Therefore, the question mark gives you a lot of flexibility in requesting commodity codes. Moreover, please note that you can ask as many codes with question marks as you like (in CFW you could only use one wildcard at a time).

4. Option *. The star ‘*’ means "all possible codes". For instance, 27* means all codes starting with 27, which would be 27, 2701, 270111, 2702, 270211, etcetera.

It is also possible to type in the commodity and country by name. For the following query see the figure below. The query would include:

Commodities = petroleum
Reporter = China
Partner = World
Year = 2004

In the Advanced Items Tab, there are two additional options: Filter Trade Value and Sort Order. For a detailed explanation on this feature see http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradekb/Knowledgebase/Aggregation-Option-in-Basic-Express-Selection. The default is All Trade Values and the result is sorted in the following sequence: Year, Trade Flow, Reporter, Commodity, and Trade Value. See picture below:

How to query data from UN Comtrade

comtrade_admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:38:16 GMT

Depending on your information need and level of expertise of the UN Comtrade system, the website offers flexibility in finding the necessary trade data. Consider the following scenarios below:

(i) Using Search for data Box, also known as Comtrade Explorer [Any Pages]

There are two search options available, data and help. For data, you can enter only commodity code or text, partner or reporter code or name, and related commodity trade variables. The output would yield several pages with the results in tag clouds. For example, the search term could be the name of the country, the country's abbreviation, a commodity key word or a year. Examples: "aircraft" or "aircraft engine". The tag clouds appear as years for which the commodity selected is available. The first result shows that year 2004 has the largest value for that commodity. Clicking data availability option just below gives all the reporters and years for which the selected commodity (-ies) is/are available.

(ii) Using Shortcut Query [Front Page]

If reporter or partner is known, Shortcut Query is the easiest tool. Just type the commodity text on the box, select reporter/partner and click Search. The system will search the latest available data.

(iii) Using Basic Selection [Menu: Data Query -> Basic Selection]

Basic selection option is a little more sophisticated but still user friendly. You can search for commodities within the commodities tab. Within the reporters tab you can select one or more reporters from the drop down list or choose your customized country groups or my favorite reporters. The latter two options are available to UN Comtrade subscribers only. It is the same for partners tab also. You can select years depending on your need in the years tab. The others tab allows the user to filter trade data by value and also allows the user to choose a preset sort order.

After choosing all the appropriate options for your query you can save your query for future use. You can also allow for batch notification. Batch notification will send a notice to your email address once the query execution is completed. Please note these two options are also limited to subscribers of the UN Comtrade database only.

(iv) Using Express Selection [Menu: Data Query -> Express Selection]

The Express selection query option is for the more advanced user of UN Comtrade. It too has all the features of the Basic Selection query but in a more compact window.

For commodities, you have the option to choose individual commodities or just chapters. All specifies all commodities within the selected revision. AG0, AG1, … AG6 are aggregate levels and refer to all commodity codes beginning with the specified digits. LF or leaf refers to the basic code and does not include any of the detailed children. Wildcard * is used to find a string of zero or more characters. Wildcard ? is used to find individual characters. The Advanced Items tab is the same as in the Basic Selection.

"Exclude" in Commodity Codes selection/query

comtrade_admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:12:21 GMT

What are the definitions of 'exclude' in Commodity Codes selection?

As you have noticed, the system uses two definitions of "exclude":

1. In the commodity selection, 'exclude' means that a particular commodity will not be selected. This comes in handy when you are using wildcard selections. For instance, if you ask 27*, -271600, then this means that you are selecting all commodities starting with 27 without selecting 271600.

2. In the construction of commodity groups, 'exclude' means that the value and quantity of a particular commodity is actually deducted from the selection. For instance, if you request 27 -271600, your final commodity will give the value of 27 minus the value of 271600. NOTE that the construction of commodity groups has to be done via the Favorites!

Download format in UN Comtrade

comtrade_admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:17:21 GMT

Q: When downloading into EXCEL, the columns 'TRADE FLOW' and 'TRADE QTY' are NOT downloaded. Thus, the problem we face is that once data is downloaded from Comtrade, and as this data is not provided, we are unsure of what info we are looking at in terms of whether it is imports/exports, etc. Nor are we able to get details of 'TRADE QTY' where the 'NET WEIGHT' is NOT in Kg.

In the past, we were able to download these columns with the rest of the data but in the last few months this has not been possible. This extends our time in downloading as we have to separate downloads for import/export, etc. However, we cannot overcome the problem of a missing 'TRADE QTY' column (where relevant).

Interestingly, the same info shown on the monitor screen provides details for both of these columns that we are unable to download into EXCEL.

Please advise how we can solve this problem or kindly direct this email to the relevant person/section within Comtrade for a response.

A: By default, Comtrade will give you the trade quantity and the quantity unit. However, this download format can be overriden (see menu Customize Download Format under My Comtrade).

I can suggest going to Customize Download Format, clicking the button "Back to Default" and try your request again.

If you still encounter the issue, you can email us at comtrade@un.org.

Using a predefined group for ''world'' as reporter

comtrade_admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:14:59 GMT

Using a predefined group for ''world'' as reporter

Q: How can I get world aggregate as a reporter?

A: Use pre-defined country grouping 12398 in the reporter tab of the 'Data Query -> Express Selection'.

Saved Query Alert and Notification

comtrade_admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:10:30 GMT

Q: What is Query Profile Notification?

A: Query profile notification will automatically notify the user via email if there is a change in the update of data in the Comtrade database. The system runs the batch automatically when AutoBatch feature is enabled.

Q: What is the "Enable Notification" feature?

A: If you enable notification by selecting ‘yes’, you will be notified by e-mail if new data (or data replacement) is available. Note: You must set your e-mail address in Account Info Page.

Q: What is "Enable AutoBatch" ?

A: Based on what is selected for Saved Query and Enable Notification features, the system submits and runs a batch automatically whenever new data becomes available.

What is "Update Type"?

Incremental Update: The system submits a batch job for new data only.
Full: The system will submit a batch for the entire query profile.

For example, in the saved query, if Indonesia and Malaysia are selected as reporters, and if data becomes available, the ‘Incremental’ option allows the system to submit data only for Indonesia, whereas, the ‘Full’ option allows the system to submit for both Indonesia and Malaysia.

What are the limitations?

1) The system can only track the changes in high-level data availability: that is, classification, reporter and year. However, data is normally processed at high-level so this feature is not affected.
2) If you have country groups then don’t use the ‘Incremental’ option. By default ‘Full’ option will be used even if ‘incremental’ option is selected.

Example One: How to set up Notification for any changes in SITC Rev.1

1) Go to Basic or Express Data Selection
2) Select SITC Rev.1 in classification selection
3) Leave the other selections (it means select all data)
4) Set "Yes" in Enable Notification
5) Type Saved query name
6) Click "Save Query"

See figure below as it appears in saved query page:

Example Two: How to set up AutoBatch for any changes in SITC Rev.1

1) Go to Basic or Express Data Selection
2) Select SITC Rev.1 in classification selection
3) Leave the other selections (by default the system selects all all data)
4) Set "Yes" in Enable Notification. Then Set "Yes" in Enable AutoBatch. Note: It's recommended to select update type "incremental".
5) Type Saved query name
6) Click "Save Query" See figure below as it appears in the saved query page:

Tips and Warnings:

1. Be careful in setting the AutoBatch feature. You might reach your records limit easily! For most users, enabling notification is sufficient.
2. Be careful in setting the AutoBatch Update Type feature. ‘Incremental’ should be fine as long as you run the query only once.
3. Try to set "All values" in Reporter and Year selections. This way you won't miss any data changes.
4. You can also monitor newly loaded data through Comtrade RSS

How do I select the type of classification?

comtrade_admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:47:29 GMT

Which classification system is appropriate to use?

Q: How do I select the type of classification? I'd like to know for example when to use the HS2002 or SITC Rev. 1?

A: In general, the rule of thumb in using the classifications is : use older classifications (SITC, Rev.1 and SITC,Rev.2) to obtain long time-series and use recent classifications (HS-2002 and HS-1996) for more detailed information.

The drawback of use of SITC, Revision 1, is that a lot of modern technology was not available at the time of the introduction of this classification (around 1960), which means for instance that it is difficult to find the classification for PCs, fax machines, color printers or mobile telephones (to name a few).

The newer classifications (like HS-2002) will have more clearly defined commodities for those mentioned items, but have been in use only recently, which means that only a few years of data can be found for that classification.

How can I download data greater than 150,000 records from UN Comtrade?

comtrade_admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:45:53 GMT

How can I download data greater than 150,000 records from UN Comtrade?

Q: How can I download data greater than 150,000 records from UN Comtrade?

A: MS Excel can only handle up to 67,000 records. You will need to feed the output into MS Access for larger data sets.

You will need to choose the "Submit to Batch Processing" option when you complete your selection procedure instead of using "Submit Query".

Using the UN Comtrade Batch Processing allows the system to submit your query directly to the server, and allows it to be executed in the background (unattended download). Once the extraction is complete, you will be notified via email and you will be provided a link to download the file (compressed using ZIP format).