Thanks a lot Radu! Just had to destring the date_ variables. Here goes the code. Might be useful to other statalisters:
***************** BEGIN CODE ***********************
clear
*reading in the data
insheet using "C:\mv1.csv", clear
*transposing
sxpose, clear
*renaming the first three variables
foreach v of varlist _var1 _var2 _var3 {
local i = `v'[1]
rename `v' `i'
}
*getting rid of "/" in the dates
*note that after renaming, only the date variables start with "_var"
destring _var*, replace ignore("/") force
*now renaming the remaining variables
foreach v of varlist _var* {
local i = `v'[1]
rename `v' data`i'
}
*dropping the first observation (because this is just the name of the variable) drop in 1
*reshaping
reshape long data, i(Name) j(date) string
*now you're left with the date in a string format, which you can convert to a proper date, in a couple of steps
gen str date_year = substr(date, -4,.)
gen str date_month = substr(date, 3, 2)
gen str date_day = substr(date, 1, 2)
destring date_year date_month date_day, replace
gen truedate = mdy(date_month, date_day, date_year)
format truedate %d
***************** END CODE ***********************
Cheers,
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Radu Ban
Sent: 28 August 2006 20:20
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: st: Import csv file
Nuno,
Here's a try. For this you would need to install the -sxpose- command (do a -findit sxpose- and then follow the link to install). This is needed because the built-in -xpose- command doesn't work with strings.
******************************
*reading in the data
insheet using "C:\somedir\myfile.csv", clear
*transposing
sxpose, clear
*renaming the first three variables
foreach v of varlist _var1 _var2 _var3 { local i = `v'[1] rename `v' `i'
}
*getting rid of "/" in the dates
*note that after renaming, only the date variables start with "_var"
destring _var*, replace ignore("/") force
*now renaming the remaining variables
foreach v of varlist _var* {
local i = `v'[1]
rename `v' data`i'
}
*dropping the first observation (because this is just the name of the variable) drop in 1
*reshaping
reshape long data, i(Name) j(date) string
*now you're left with the date in a string format, which you can convert to a proper *date, in a couple of steps
gen str date_year = substr(date, -4,.)
gen str date_month = substr(date, 3, 2)
gen str date_day = substr(date, 1, 2)
gen truedate = mdy(date_month, date_day, date_year)
*now you can format the date using the preferred date format, for example format truedate %d
********************
I hope this helps. Also if you want to run this for several .csv files, check out the archives for last week, there's a thread on how to loop over all files in a directory.
-Radu Ban
2006/8/28, Nuno Soares <[email protected]>:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I need to import some csv files that have an awkward format. The format is always the same:
>
> Name Company1 Company2 Company3 ...
> Code 0000(MV) 0001(MV) 0002(MV) ...
> Currency £ £ € ...
> 31/12/1986 data1 data2 data3 ...
> 30/01/1987 dataX dataY dataZ ...
> ...
> 30/12/2005 dataW dataJ dataK ...
>
> The number of companies is variable (ie, columns), and its width is also variable. Data1, data2, etc. are numeric.
>
> Can you please tell me if it is possible to import to Stata the data described, in the following format:
>
> Company Code Currency Date Data
> Company1 0000(MV) £ 31/12/1986 data1
> Company1 0000(MV) £ 30/01/1987 dataX
> ...
> Company1 0000(MV) £ 30/12/2005 dataW
> Company2 0001(MV) £ 31/12/1986 data2
> Company2 0001(MV) £ 30/01/1987 dataY
> ...
> Company2 0001(MV) £ 30/12/2005 dataJ
> Company3 0002(MV) £ 31/12/1986 data3
> Company3 0002(MV) £ 30/01/1987 dataZ
> ...
> Company3 0002(MV) £ 30/12/2005 dataK
> and so on.
>
> Some treatment on the original data can be done in Excel, but I wanted to avoid it (I have almost one hundred files that I need to import...). If any one has an idea of how to do it, I would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Best,
>
>
> *
> * 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/
