Data glossaryAPI – Application Programming Interface

API – Application Programming Interface

Data scienceOpen dataTechnology

An API is an interface that defines how, for example, software applications can communicate with each other. APIs allow different software systems to interact and share data.

When it comes to data exchange, it is often the simplest way to hide the complexity of the underlying system while enabling an effective way to retrieve specific data on demand.

In practice

The World Bank provides an API for statistics about countries and regions. By sending a query – in a format that is described by this particular API – an application can make use of small or large chunks of this data according to particular needs. The API access ensures the data can always be consumed in the same repeatable way.

Related terms

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CSV

CSV or Comma-separated values, is a standard format for spreadsheet data. Data values are separated by commas and each row represents a record.

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Human Readable

Data in a format that can be conveniently read by a human. Some human-readable formats, like PDF, are not machine-readable.

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Machine Readable

Data in a data format that can be automatically read and processed by a computer, such as CSV, JSON, or XML.