Sometimes it is possible to take the input statements for something like SAS
and manipulate them in a text editor or spreadsheet to make new ones
compliant with another language (or even a a different format for the same
language). I did this for the DHS files once upon a time.
Bryan Sayer
Statistician, SSS Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Bini [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 10:23 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: CDC Data (was: Re: st: On choosing a stats package...)
Thanks David. I have Stat Transfer and it is very helpful. I do not have SAS
so I can't run the SAS code. I can get access to SAS and have someone label
the data using the SAS code and then I can use Stat Transfer to convert it
to a Stata file. Although this may help me get the data into Stata, it
sounds like I will not be able to get the variable or value labels. It would
take too much time to type all of the variable and value labels since there
are 250+ variables in some of these databases. Does anyone have any
experience using Stata for large surveys such as the National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey from the CDC? If so, do you know if it is
possible to get variable and value labels from SAS into Stata?
Thank you.
Ed
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of David L. Van Brunt
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 9:55 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: CDC Data (was: Re: st: On choosing a stats package...)
Since we've changed topic from the original post, I took the liberty of
editing the subject line. On your Q:
On 1/23/03 10:06 PM, "Ed Bini" <[email protected]> wrote:
> I agree with David's assessment of Stata. Stata 8 is awesome. I am an SPSS
> junkie too but am trying to learn Stata for large CDC surveys (NHANES,
BRFSS
> etc). David I have a question for you. The CDC surveys are in ASCII or SAS
> format. How do you get them into Stata and is there a way to get the
> variable and value labels into Stata without having to use SAS? Thanks.
> Ed
Sadly, none that I know of. For NAMCS, they actually distribute SAS code to
get the data in. I just ran that, then used STAT/Transfer (or you could use
DBMS Copy, I suppose) to make it a Stata data set. All the variable names
carried over fine, but the way SAS handles variable labels, that's not
possible as far as I know. SAS keeps variable labels separately, in a format
file that you apply when you need it. The value labels are not stored with
the data.
On the bright side, this keeps the files smaller.
HTH,
Dave
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