Re: st: RE: Re: convert data to CSV

["Ben Jann" <ben.jann@gmail.com>]

Hm, weird. Excel uses semicolons in CSV files on my system. In fact,
if I open (i.e. double click) a CSV file in which commas are used as
delimiting characters, Excel does not seem to recognize the commas as
delimiters. Maybe this is because I am from a German speaking part of
the world and Germans use the comma as the decimal marker.

Is it true that semicolon-delimited CSV files do not open nicely in
non-German Excel versions? Can someone check that? I am asking because
-esta- (a wrapper for -estout-) writes semicolon-delimited CSV and it
would be a pitty if this would only work in German Excel versions.
ben

On 12/16/06, Earnhart, Benjamin J <benjamin-earnhart@uiowa.edu> wrote:
> Per the Wikipedia entry, it seems like a reasonably well-specified
> format to me. I still prefer tab-delimited (what I call .tsv) since if I
> am in such a situation, I don't want to worry about commas or quotations
> within an entry, but done properly, .csv is just fine.
>
> Never did semi-colon delimited, except for a professor in computer
> science who wrote his own code and had his own conventions.  And I go
> back and forth from Excel a lot.  Sure, Excel will allow any delimiter
> you specify.  But anything other than tabs and commas and you need to go
> out of your way to tell it what is the delimiter.
>
> So I dunno what Ben (the other Ben!) was referring to re: Excel
> expecting semicolons.  Maybe parsing Excel XML?  But if it's XML, then
> we're off in a world where anything can represent anything as long as
> it's properly specified, and that's far beyond humble .csv files.
>
> Ben Earnhart
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Alan
> Neustadtl
> Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 8:37 AM
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: st: RE: Re: convert data to CSV
>
> The wikipedia entry on this topic is informative
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values).  Apparently
> there is no one agreed upon formal specification.
>
> Best,
> Alan
>
>
> On 12/16/06, Nick Cox <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk> wrote:
> > In this part of Europe, namely Britain, comma-separated means
> > what it says. I haven't tested for change of behaviour on
> > the other side of La Manche.
> >
> > Nick
> > n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
> >
> > Kit Baum
> >
> > > Well, Microsoft Office Help for "CSV file" says that data items are
> > > separated by commas, so I don't know why Excel would expect that
> > > (unless a default preference has been altered). Perhaps European
> > > versions of MS Office behave differently because the comma is
> > > used as
> > > a digits separator. But RAY is on the same side of the pond as I am.
> >
> > > On Dec 16, 2006, at 2:33 AM, Ben wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > What Ray probably means is that Excel expects semicolons as
> > > delimiters
> > > > in a CSV file.
*
*   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/