Overview

The API of the Particle Data Group (PDG) provides programmatic access to the data published in the Review of Particle Physics. It provides three tools for accessing PDG data in machine-readable format that are aimed at different use cases. The three tools are:

  • a REST API,

  • a Python API, and

  • downloadable PDG database files.

The REST API allows retrieving the data presented by pdgLive in JSON format without installing any PDG-specific software. Buttons labeled JSON are present on pdgLive pages where data can be downloaded. An example of such a page is the pdgLive summary page of the charged pion.

The Python API, implemented in Python package pdg, provides a high-level API for programmatically accessing PDG data. For most users, this will be the easiest and most versatile method for programmatically accessing PDG data.

The PDG database file allows downloading the PDG data as a single file in SQLite format that can be queried with SQL using any of the SQLite libraries that are available for many programming languages. This option is intended for users who wish to incorporate PDG data into their own software for an application, where the Python API is not suitable (e.g. because their software is written in a different programming language such as C++), and who have the necessary technical expertise to correctly query the data.

Internally, these tools use digital object identifiers termed PDG Identifiers in order to reference specific items of PDG data. In most cases, the user does not need to know specific PDG Identifiers and can instead either navigate to the quantity of interest in pdgLive (where the corresponding PDG Identifier is displayed) or start with customary references such as Monte Carlo particle numbers or ASCII particle names.

The following chapters provide details on PDG Identifiers and on how to use the different tools for programmatic access to PDG data.

Development of the PDG API is continuing in order to add additional features. See Development status for an overview of what is available and what features are still being developed.