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Compute ID block from OpenAlex IDs

Source: R/id_block.R
id_block.Rd

This function computes the ID block partition key from OpenAlex IDs. The ID block is calculated as the trailing numeric portion of the ID divided by 10,000.

Usage

id_block(ids)

Arguments

ids

Character vector of OpenAlex IDs in any format:

  • Short form: "W2741809807"

  • Long form: "https://openalex.org/W2741809807"

  • Path-based: "https://openalex.org/domains/2"

Value

Integer vector of ID blocks.

Details

OpenAlex IDs come in several formats:

  • Standard: https://openalex.org/{type}{number} (e.g., W1234567890)

  • Path-based: https://openalex.org/{entity_type}/{number} (e.g., domains/2, subfields/2208)

The ID block is computed as floor(number / 10000), where number is the trailing numeric portion of the ID. This groups approximately 10,000 IDs into each block, useful for partitioning large datasets.

Examples

# Short form IDs
id_block(c("W2741809807", "W2741809808", "W1234567890"))
#> [1] 274180 274180 123456
# Returns: c(274180, 274180, 123456)

# Long form IDs
id_block("https://openalex.org/W2741809807")
#> [1] 274180
# Returns: 274180

# Path-based IDs
id_block("https://openalex.org/domains/2")
#> [1] 0
# Returns: 0

# Works with any entity type
id_block(c("A123456789", "I987654321"))
#> [1] 12345 98765
# Returns: c(12345, 98765)