Caching and Performance

povineq currently uses HTTP connection pooling and transport retries. The cache-directory helpers are retained for local cache management, but the active HTTP client does not persist or replay API responses.

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How the Cache Works

The cache directory is platform-appropriate:

OS	Default location
macOS	~/Library/Caches/povineq/
Linux	~/.cache/povineq/
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\povineq\Cache\

The current request layer does not write response files to this directory.

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Inspecting the Cache

Use get_cache_info() to see how many files are in the cache directory and how much disk space they use:

import povineq

info = povineq.get_cache_info()
print(info["path"])        # path to the cache directory
print(info["n_files"])     # number of files in the cache directory
print(info["total_bytes"]) # total size in bytes

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Clearing the Cache

Delete all files in the managed cache directory with delete_cache():

import povineq

povineq.delete_cache()

This removes the managed cache directory and recreates an empty one. The active HTTP client does not currently write response files there.

Tip

Use the version or release_version parameter in get_stats() and other functions to request a specific PIP data release.

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Request Versions

To request a specific data release, pin release_version:

import povineq

df = povineq.get_stats(
    country="IDN",
    release_version="20240101",
)

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Performance Tips

• Batch country queries: fetching get_stats(country=["IDN", "IND", "BRA"]) is one API call; calling get_stats(country="IDN") three times is three calls.
• Use fill_gaps=True once: fetching gap-filled data for all countries in one call is faster than looping over countries.
• Reuse sessions: povineq uses httpx with connection pooling. Within a single Python process, connections are reused automatically.
• Store auxiliary tables: if you call get_gdp() and get_cpi() multiple times in a session, store them with assign_tb=True to avoid repeated deserialization.

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API Reference

See povineq._cache for the full documentation of delete_cache() and get_cache_info().