Re: st: data management

[Richard Williams <Richard.A.Williams.5@nd.edu>]

At 02:12 PM 2/17/2004 -0800, Anuja Saurkar wrote:
> 2)I want to convert a SPSS file (.sav extension) into
> a Stata file. Is there any way I can fo that?
The easiest way is with a program like Stat/Transfer; well worth the money 
if you are going to be doing this a lot, as it is easy and will preserve 
your labels and handle quirky differences in the way the two programs 
handle things (e.g. missing data). (But check to make sure you like the way 
it handles quirky differences, e.g. there are a couple of ways of handling 
missing data conversions.)

Alternatively, -findit spss- points to routines like -outdat- that will 
make the conversion one way or another.

I also have fairly good luck just cutting and pasting from SPSS's data 
editor to Stata's; I'm not sure that you can count on that to handle all 
types of conversions though.

You can also do "Save as" in SPSS, choosing a format that Stata can 
import.  Not sure which options are easiest.


> 3) I am using weights:
> so generally I write
>
> tabstat variable [aweight=weight] by variable....
>
> Is there any way I can use weights without including
> it in the tabstat command? I want to run a bunch of
> summary table, would like to use weights for all of
> them.
I suspect not, but I am curious too.  A difference that strikes me between 
SPSS and Stata is that, in SPSS, I can specify weights or filters (i.e. 
temporary sample selections) and they continue to hold until I tell SPSS 
otherwise; in Stata I have to keep on specifying the weights or filters 
with every command.

*
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