[email protected]
> I have posed the questions to Stata tech support, but the answers
> have not been entirely satisfactory. I would really appreciate your
> help in this:
>
> 1) Is there a Stata command to export data (to text format for
> example) which does not use the display format of the variables (but
> instead uses the storage format)?
What do you mean by the storage format? -help dta- points to
information on how data are stored, which you can use to design
your own program.
> 2) If not, is it possible to export with a dictionary (the reverse of
> infilling with a dictionary), or is this done by manipulating the
> display formats prior to the export?
See -outfile-.
> 3) How can one make sure that there is no precision lost (however
> insignificant that may be) if one has to export data from a Stata
> file (assuming the import into Stata was done correctly), and does
> not have the "raw data" for comparison purposes (i.e. does formatting
> all vars to something like %17.6f take care of that)?
> For example:
> If I use insheet to import 103192286.98 into Stata, and then outsheet
> the record I get back something like 1.03e+08. Why is this
> happening? Stata reads in the variable as a float, and assigns a
> display format of %9.0g. Even if I change the display format, I
> still get a rounding error (and if I check in the browser, the number
> is 1.03e+08).
You should import such data as -double- variables. Otherwise some
precision will be lost and no amount of tuning the display format
will put it back again.
Please use informative titles.
Nick
[email protected]
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