Retrieve node property values

The =DCPROPERTY formula returns values associated with the given property for a single place DCID or list of places.

Formula

=DCPROPERTY(dcids, property)

Required arguments

  • dcids: A single place node or range of cells representing nodes, identified by their DCIDs.
  • property: The label of the property whose value you are interested in, such as name for the name of a node, or typeOf for the type of a node. If you aren’t sure what properties are available for a particular DCID, you can use the Data Commons Knowledge Graph to look up the DCID of interest and see what properties it is associated with.

Returns

The values of the property label for the specified DCIDs.

Examples

This section contains examples of using the =DCPROPERTY to return values associated with the given property.

Note: Be sure to follow the instructions for for enabling the Sheets add-on before trying these examples.

Example 1: Retrieve the common name of a country by its DCID

To retrieve the name of a country by its DCID:

  1. Place your cursor in the cell where you want to add a DCID; in this case, cell A1.
  2. Enter country/CIV for the country Ivory Coast.
  3. Place your cursor in cell B2 and enter =DCPROPERTY(A1, "name") to retrieve the Ivory Coast country names in column B; note that the French and English spellings for Ivory Coast appear in column B.

DCPROPERTY example 1

Example 2: Retrieve the order to which a plant belongs

To retrieve the order to which the plant Austrobaileya Scandens belongs:

  1. Place your cursor in the cell where you want to add a DCID; in this case, cell A1.
  2. Enter dc/bsmvthtq89217 for the plant Austrobaileya Scandens.
  3. Place your cursor in cell B2 and enter =DCPROPERTY(A1, "order"). Austrobaileyales appears in cell B2.

DCPROPERTY example 2

Example 3: Retrieve the addresses of two high schools

To retrieve the addresses of Stuyvesant High School in New York and Gunn High School in California:

  1. Place your cursor in cell A1 and enter nces/360007702877 for Stuyvesant Hight School in New York.
  2. Place your cursor in cell A2 and enter nces/062961004587 for Gunn High School in California.
  3. Place your cursor in cell B2, and enter the formula =DCPROPERTY(A1:A2, "address"). The addresses of both high schools are populated in column B.

DCPROPERTY example 3

Error responses

If you pass a nonexistent property, an empty value is returned. For example, because the “nonexistent property” does not exist, no value is returned to cell B1 in the following sheet:

DCPROPERTY error example

If you pass a bad DCID, an empty value is returned:

DCPROPERTY error example

If you pass an empty DCID, a response of #ERROR! is returned:

DCPROPERTY error example

If you do not pass a required property argument, a response of #ERROR! is returned:

DCPROPERTY error example

Page last updated: July 10, 2025 • Send feedback about this page