Unable to Select Value from Dataset

Question

I'm doing a project using one of the datasets in the Wolfram Data Repository, and I ran into a weird wall that I have not been able to fix.

I imported the dataset like this:

COVIDData = ResourceData[ResourceObject["Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic Government Measures"]]

Then, using the select function, I should be able to select various countries based on their respective values in the dataset. For example, I can select all the rows with the UNCode "AFG", and get an implementation date:

Normal[COVIDData[Select[#UNCode == "AFG" &]][All,"ImplementationDate"]]

Filtering by UNCode works fine, however some of the others columns I filter by mysteriously give me a white box, even though the code should be correct. In particular, trying to filter by Country, Region, and Continent all give me a blank white box as an output:

Normal[COVIDData[Select[#Country== "Afghanistan" &]][All,"ImplementationDate"]]

Normal[COVIDData[Select[#Region== "Asia" &]][All,"ImplementationDate"]]

Normal[COVIDData[Select[#Continent== "Asia" &]][All,"ImplementationDate"]]

The 3 code lines above all give a blank white box. I've tried doing a bunch of different things, all of them ending up in that blank white box. Is this a problem with the dataset, or is there another approach to make this work?

Thanks

Answer 1

The Country attribute is a "Country" Enitiy.

Normal[COVIDData[
   Select[#Country == Entity["Country", "Afghanistan"] &]][All,"ImplementationDate"]]

The Region and Continent attributes are "Country" EntityClasses.

Normal[COVIDData[Select[#Region == EntityClass["Country", "Asia"] &]][All, "ImplementationDate"]]

Normal[COVIDData[
   Select[#Continent == EntityClass["Country", "Asia"] &]][All, "ImplementationDate"]]

See the Enter Free-Form Input workflow for keyboard shortcuts to enter these. For example, for Asian "Country" EntityClass you can type:

Ctrl+= Asian Continent Enter (not numpad Enter)

instead of the input form.

Hope this helps.