Discussion

[samayo]

Hello, this is to discuss about new major change to the repo.

I am trying to remove most countries not recognized by UN.
Currently, there are 248 countries in this repo, but the UN recognizes only 193 of them, so this will be a big change.

Other than that, I will fill all data for each country (so, no null or empty values)

All data will be also automated (to be updated each week whenever something changes in the source like wikipedia)

Let me know if you like to keep this repo as per the UN recognized countries only

[jezmck]

I think that list is a valid requirement for some people, but not everyone.

I'd add that as a new list within this repo.

[iamdoubz]

Just add another file in src called "recognized-un-country.json" with a 1 or 0 value. This will keep the existing structure and pushed the responsibility to the person(s) creating their application. Hope this helps.

[samayo]

Just add another file in src called "recognized-un-country.json" with a 1 or 0 value. This will keep the existing structure and pushed the responsibility to the person(s) creating their application. Hope this helps.

Thanks, but I don't think it would be nice to keep the existing structure. Some src files have more entries than others. The idea is for all files to contain all 193 countries in the same order, so if you want to get multiple data of one country from all files, it would be very convenient.

[kennarddh]

Does this data currently scrapped from wikipedia? if yes is it automated?

[samayo]

Yes it's scrapped of Wikipedia mostly. Automating the process has been the goal for a long but I can't find much time that's why it's not implemented

[kennarddh]

I can implement the automation but I still don't understand the wikipedia data.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population

In this wikipedia I don't understand what is the difference between numbered country and - country?

[samayo]

Note: A numbered rank is assigned to the 193 member states of the United Nations, plus the two observer states to the United Nations General Assembly. Dependent territories and constituent countries that are parts of sovereign states are not assigned a numbered rank

So numbered are officially recognised countries in numbered are disputed like Taiwan for example.

This repo should focus only on recognised countries

[kennarddh]

@samayo should this repo include the two observer states?

[samayo]

Yes I think that would be ok

[kennarddh]

Proposed Changes

Update

• This will be very big breaking change.
• This will also increase the data size as more fields and data is added.
• To reduce size we can remove null value. Like if the country doesn't have the data instead of null we delete the data to reduce size. API library can solve this to return null instead of error when getting the data.
• Data maybe cannot be modified manually as its will be overridden every month.
• Data will scrapped mostly from wikipedia and wikimedia. I still can't find some data.
• Boolean will be used instead of string 1 or 0
• Maybe we can use object like { 3LetterCountryCode: data } instead of [{ country: name, data: data }] to reduce size.
• Periodic update will create new pull request and still need to be reviewed manually every month. To prevent if wikipedia changed its page html structure.

Removed

• Alphabet Letters: Do we need this data, this seems redundant.
• Country name: Countries data can be used instead.

Added

• Countries data
• Currency symbol
• National sport
• Many new fields

Changed

• Change Barcode prefix to GS1Code
• Rename Country By Abbreviation to ISO3166. Add 2 and 3 letter code.
• Rename Currency code to ISO4217.
• Average Height
• Rename Domain tld to ccTLD and add new fields.
• Rename elevation to averageElevarion

Source

• ISO3166: ISO 3166-1 We can add 2 and 3 letter code.
• Average Height: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_human_height_by_country We can add maleToFemaleRatio, methodoly, year?
• Countries: data that will include the country name, and is the country original member of united nation, and when joined united nations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_United_Nations.
• GS1Code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GS1_country_codes. I don't know how to include ranged code and country that have multiple code range like UPC-A compatible - Used to issue restricted circulation numbers within a geographic.
• Calling codes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_calling_codes. Do we need to include nested code like United States Virgin Islands.
• Capital city: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_capitals. Official.
• Cities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_cities_by_country. Need to request to multiple child page.
• Continent: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_continents.
• Coastline: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_length_of_coastline
• Area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area. Land and water.
• ISO4217: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency
• Currency symbol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency
• Currency name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency
• ccTLD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_code_top-level_domain. New fields registry, IDN, DNSSEC, SLD, IPv6.
• Average elevation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_elevation
• Flag: I can't find it in wikipedia. All I saw is very small resolution png.
• Geo cordinates: I can't find it in wikipedia.
• Government type: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_system_of_government Is this right?
• Independence date: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_independence_days. Can we add month, day and from fields?
• ISO numeric: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_numeric
• Landlocked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landlocked_country#List_of_landlocked_countries_and_landlocked_de_facto_states. If country in this list it will be marked as landlocked.
• Languages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_official_languages_by_country_and_territory. Can we add officialLanguages, regionalLanguage, minorityLanguage, nationalLanguage,widelySpoken fields?
• Life expectancy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy. World Bank Group (2022) data. male, female, all fields.
• National dish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_dish. Now an array. 1 country can have multiple dishes.
• National symbol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_national_symbols. Need to loop through all the child pages.
• Population density: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density
• Population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density
• Region: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_regional_classification
• Religion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_information_by_country. Use Pew forum data. Can we add percentage per country per religion?
• Yearly average temperature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_yearly_temperature.
• National sport: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_sport. 1 country can have more than 1 sport. isOfficial boolean.

Note

• Github Action Create Pull Request: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68057744/create-pull-request-with-github-action

[samayo]

Great point thanks for all the help so far you are making this easy even if I want to implement it.

Some notes:

Maybe we can use object like { 3LetterCountryCode: data } instead of [{ country: name, data: data }] to reduce size.

Lets leave the above as is for now because I don't see a reason to change that

I'm ok with removing alphabet letters but not country names, remember that there are many websites, games that need to display just country names for some reason

Other than those remarks everything else is a great idea

[samayo]

Btw I was recently thinking to give chatgpt the Wikipedia section that contains the data and ask it to generate the python code to convert the data from html to JSON and use that script every month to look for more updates.

The script would be made using python with scrappy I have an unfinished version of it in my local.

Once chatgpt creates the script and it works we upload the script to a server and with cronjob run it every month to scrap and send a pr request

That's what I thought initially, feel free to work upon the idea of provide your own

[kennarddh]

I have never used python since 2020 so I can't implement it in python.

Now I mostly use typescript with NodeJS.

Instead of vps we can use github action instead.

For Country name can we just use array? Like [ "A", "B" ].

Can we move this repo to new organization so I can add sdk If I can.

[kennarddh]

Where did you find the flag svg @samayo?

[jezmck]

Wherever they are, they 100% need to go through SVGO or a similar compressor.

[kennarddh]

I can't find the svg source to scrap. The image html always unstructured.

[samayo]

It's from Wikipedia. Check each country's flag page, it will have SVG format

[kennarddh]

@samayo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_United_States_(DoS_ECA_Color_Standard).svg This still need to go through svgo?

[samayo]

I don't understand your question. You will find a .svg file on every Wikipedia page and that must be converted to base64 format. We store in this repo a base64 representation of the svg

[kennarddh]

isn't svgo is for optimizing svg?

[samayo]

You still need to right click on the flag and select "open image in new tab..." Then you will see this URL

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Flag_of_the_United_States_%28DoS_ECA_Color_Standard%29.svg

That is the SVG the one you linked is html page

[kennarddh]

What is svgo for?

[jezmck]

That one is actually okay, but some flags are massive files.
Try https://jakearchibald.github.io/svgomg/ on the more complex flags.

SVGOMG is just a GUI for SVGO.

[kennarddh]

Ok so wikipedia -> svgo optimize -> base64?

[kennarddh]

@samayo Can I make the scrapper with typescript instead of python?

[samayo]

I highly suggest python so I can contribute also but you decide. Where do you plan to host the script? Here or at your own GitHub page?

[kennarddh]

@samayo If you want to use python I can't contribute.

[kennarddh]

I can create new repo so I can use typescript instead. If you don't want @samayo.

[samayo]

I think I will give it a shot and you can also go ahead and try we can use one or the other or both. I am happy to get a regular pr from anyone

[kennarddh]

Ok i will create a pr later with typescript

[kennarddh]

@samayo any update for my previous question?

[samayo]

@samayo Where to get Geo Coordinates?

all from wikipedia

[samayo]

@samayo should the data include the country even though the data is null

Like [{ country: 'x', data: null }] do we need to include this?

yes we should definitely add the country, we use ca use null, none, false or 0
You can pick any format as long as it is consistent. I prefer null since 0 could confuse users with other data

[kennarddh]

@samayo Where to get Geo Coordinates?

all from wikipedia

Can you add the link or the wikipedia page? I can't find it.

[samayo]

It seems I was wrong, it is not from wikipedia and the way the data is represented is not entirely optimal.

Can you use this instead? https://developers.google.com/public-data/docs/canonical/countries_csv

You can use other source.
In any case, this data is unlikely to change so you can even exclude it

[kennarddh]

It seems I was wrong, it is not from wikipedia and the way the data is represented is not entirely optimal.

Can you use this instead? https://developers.google.com/public-data/docs/canonical/countries_csv

You can use other source. In any case, this data is unlikely to change so you can even exclude it

That data is different with this https://github.com/samayo/country-json/blob/0c522ea1e7ae88e9a2dd979322fbf8c2814b0de6/src/country-by-geo-coordinates.json

The data in google doesn't have west, south, north, east

[samayo]

It's fine, we can use whatever is close enough and if there is a need to improve it then we can do that later

[kennarddh]

@samayo I have some problem that the country name in different wikipedia page have different names

For example

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_United_Nations: Netherlands
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1: Netherlands, Kingdom of the

We can compare the url but I don't know will it still be different. But I'll try.

Edit 1

• Cannot use url as id because some wikipedia page use redirect.

Edit 2

• I found the api to get redirect data: https://stackoverflow.com/a/48090694/14813577

[samayo]

I don't know about the redirect issue, but if you found the solution then it's good.
About country names being different on different pages, i think we have to use a custom code logic for that.
e.g., if(countryName = "Netherlands, Kingdom of the") {CountryName = "Netherland")

[kennarddh]

I don't know about the redirect issue, but if you found the solution then it's good. About country names being different on different pages, i think we have to use a custom code logic for that. e.g., if(countryName = "Netherlands, Kingdom of the") {CountryName = "Netherland")

If we use if like that the automation will be broken when the wikipedia page is updated and there is so many alias

[samayo]

that's unlikely, i don't know what you are planning to use but using python and panda, to find the table you are looking for very easily.

Take a look at this https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/web-scraping-a-wikipedia-table-into-a-dataframe-c52617e1f451

from step 5, it is very easy to get all tables in the page and target the table you need.

So it's unlikely any changes will break as far as I think.

[kennarddh]

I can resolve the redirect issue using this https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=help&modules=query%2Bredirects api.

[kennarddh]

@samayo In this wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_calling_codes

Some countries have 2 or more codes

Which code should we include?

In the old json its just concat the 1 with 939 ignoring 787

{
  "country": "Puerto Rico",
  "calling_code": 1939
},

[samayo]

@kennarddh
We have to use both separated by a comma, if you have better ideas let me know
Thanks

[kennarddh]

@kennarddh We have to use both separated by a comma, if you have better ideas let me know Thanks

We can use something like this

{
  "country": "example",
  "data": [1787, 1938]
}

[samayo]

@kennarddh looks good for me

[kennarddh]

@samayo russia have like range code?

{
  "country": "russia",
  "data": [71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 78, 79]
}

Is this right?

[samayo]

@kennarddh

I think it's better to use 7 (007) as the others seem to be extensions

https://countrycode.org/russia

[kennarddh]

@kennarddh

I think it's better to use 7 (007) as the others seem to be extensions

https://countrycode.org/russia

Kazakhstan Also uses 7

And also this

[samayo]

Yes the two first countries are not officially recognised.

Let's use 7 for Russia until something changes

[kennarddh]

Yes the two first countries are not officially recognised.

Let's use 7 for Russia until something changes

And for this?

[samayo]

1242

The Bahamas is an independent country but uses the US calling code +1 and extension 242

So we should use the full calling code 242

[kennarddh]

1242

The Bahamas is an independent country but uses the US calling code +1 and extension 242

So we should use the full calling code 242

Its not consistent.

@samayo how to parse it if its not consistent?

[samayo]

In that case let's use the value as seen as in Wikipedia, just the way it is written

1 (variation 1, variation 2)

This is harder than I thought but this is the right thing to do imo

[samayo]

In that case let's use the value as seen as in Wikipedia, just the way it is written

1 (variation 1, variation 2)

This is harder than I thought but this is the right thing to do imo

Another question is should we include 00 or + or just nothing as the prefix, I say to include 001

So a JSON entry for US should be 001
For the Bahamas 001 (x, y,)

[kennarddh]

So use string instead of number @samayo?

And should we pad the x and y with 00?

And for russia should we leave it like x (y-z, c, d)

[samayo]

Good question, yes we should use string but we should not pad x, y with with 00 because then it would mean 00100424

[kennarddh]

Good question, yes we should use string but we should not pad x, y with with 00 because then it would mean 00100424

isn't it should be 00x if x is 1 char?

0x if x is 2 chars

and x if its more than 2 chars

And russia will be 007 (1–5, 8, 9)

[samayo]

closing as no update needed