Thanks for your reply, Jim. I did use the kludgy brute force method, but
using Stata, not SPSS. The syntax in Stata is similar.
Best,
Lee
Lee Sieswerda, Epidemiologist
Thunder Bay District Health Unit
999 Balmoral Street
Thunder Bay, Ontario
Canada P7B 6E7
Tel: +1 (807) 625-5957
Fax: +1 (807) 623-2369
[email protected]
www.tbdhu.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marks, Jim [SMTP:[email protected]]
> Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 3:38 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: st: RE: stat-transfer question
>
> Hi Lee:
>
> I recommend adding value labels to the converted variable in SPSS. A
> list of labels can be concatenated into SPSS syntax using Excel or some
> other spreadsheet program.
>
> Here is a procedure for Excel. Copy the value labels into the
> spreadsheet. With values in column A and labels in column B, create this
> formula in C1:
>
> =" "&A1&" '"&B1&"' "
>
> Copy the formula down the list of values. This will generate results
> like:
> 1 'No Comment'
> 2 'Thanks'
> 3 'Next'
>
> (Notice that each line begins with 3 spaces-- necessary to wrap lines in
> SPSS.)
>
> Copy and paste the range of formulas into a SPSS syntax window. The
> values will be copied, not the Excel formulas. You will need to make
> minor edits to conform to SPSS syntax. Type in the SPSS command
>
> VALUE LABELS varname
>
> in front of the first label, and insert a period after the last label.
>
> This is a bit kludgy, but it should work for you. If you have numerous
> strings to convert and relabel, you might need a more efficient
> solution.
>
> Jim Marks
> Senior Market Analyst
> LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lee Sieswerda [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 11:15 AM
> To: Statalist (E-mail)
> Subject: st: stat-transfer question
>
>
> I'm using the latest update of Stat-Transfer 7 and notice in the manual
> supplement that value labels for strings (SPSS and SAS) are now
> supported.
> I'm trying to convert a large file in SPSS format to Stata 8 format.
>
> For numeric variables in the SPSS input file, the transfer to Stata
> format
> works perfectly; all of the value and variable labels transfer nicely.
> Now
> here's the challenge: I have some variables in the SPSS file that are,
> in
> fact, numbers but which are stored as strings with value labels. Because
> they are strings in SPSS, they are transferred as strings to Stata.
> Therein
> lies the problem. Stata doesn't support value labels on strings and so I
> lose the large list of value labels in the transfer. I tried to work
> around
> the problem by recasting the SPSS variable from string to numeric but,
> alas,
> SPSS insists on dropping the value labels during the conversion. I was
> thinking that in an ideal world, Stat-Transfer would offer me the
> flexibility of being able to choose the storage type in the output Stata
> file. That is, I'd like to convert (SPSS string with value labels) to
> (Stata
> float with value labels).
>
> Any ideas on how to accomplish this?
>
> Thanks,
> Lee
>
> Lee Sieswerda, Epidemiologist
> Thunder Bay District Health Unit
> 999 Balmoral Street
> Thunder Bay, Ontario
> Canada P7B 6E7
> Tel: +1 (807) 625-5957
> Fax: +1 (807) 623-2369
> [email protected]
> www.tbdhu.com
>
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
> * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
> * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
