Getting started: What kind of thing can we do with the SE-API that we can't do with the SE Data Explorer?

Question

I want to know if my slender grasp of the latter will help me learn about the former.

Answer 1

You can get meta data about a site as well as about all sites and users within the Stack Exchange sites network, see e.g. the following routes:

Api Routes

• /stats
  • Gets various system statistics.

StackAuth Routes

• /sites
  • Returns a list of all the sites in the StackExchange network
• /users/{id}/associated
  • Gets all the associated user accounts across the StackExchange network as identified by the given association_id.

This kind of meta and cross site information is not available via the Stack Exchange Data Explorer.

Answer 2

You can fetch live data for one. The data explorer uses data that is up to a month old.

Answer 3

Another feature only available is the /user timed_penalty_date which is the time when a user leaves the penalty box.