st: Easy way to export Stata output to Excel versions with different decimal separator

["Dr. Gawrich, Stefan" <s.gawrich@suah-ldk.hessen.de>]

Title: Easy way to export Stata output to Excel versions with different decimal separator

Hi,

I often have to copy Stata-Output (mostly tables) into Excel.
The german Excel version uses (like in many other european countries) the "," as decimal separator instead of the ".".
Using "Copy-Table" and "Paste" I get errors (e.g. automatic transformation of numbers into dates) so I always have to do some editing tricks to get it right.

In Stata related help stuff I didn't find Information on this problem.
In Excel support pages and newsgroups the most given suggestion is to change country preferences (which would affect all Software on the user account)

But at last I found an easier solution, hope it is useful for some of you:

In Stata mark the output and just copy (STRG-C), not Copy Table

Paste into Excel. The column which contains the whole copied data must be marked.

Menu DATA -> Text to Columns

Normally "Fixed Width" will do for Stata Tables -> Next

Adjust columns if necessary  -> Next

Now the most important part: Click "Advanced" and choose the decimal seperator (in the case of Stata output ".")  -> O.K. -> Finish

Thats it.
 

Stefan Gawrich
s.gawrich@suah-ldk.hessen.de