Paulo Guimaraes ([email protected]) would like to download
data from an FTP site directly into Stata:
> I would like to know if it is possible to read data directly from an ftp
> site.
> My interest in this is because I need to access some flat files at the BLS
> web site.
> Right now what I do is to open the file in my web browser and then save it
> and insheet it into Stata.
> For example, to read the employment time series for the state of Alabama I
> need to open the file in my web browser
> with the command:
> ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/time.series/sm/sm.data.1.Alabama
> and then save it and read it into Stata.
> Is it possible to read the data directly from within Stata?
Anders Alexandersson ([email protected]) suggested that it may
be possible to do this directly in Stata:
> I don't think you need to resort to mapping. The user manual [U] 28.2
> suggests the Stata -copy- command for sharing other files than Stata
> datasets (for which -use- is a direct solution). Although the URL
> examples are for http, and I have not tried ftp, ftp is another type
> of URL so it should work.
Stata currently supports only the 'http' protocol for accessing files
on the internet. URLs beginning with 'ftp://' and protocols other
than 'http://' are not supported.
Paulo should be able to do as Austin Nichols ([email protected])
suggested:
> There are probably several platform-specific approaches. One is to
> "map an ftp server as a drive" or whatever the equivalent operation is
> in your OS. In various flavors of Windows, there are several apps
> that can map a drive letter to an ftp server, at which point the
> standard infiling commands should work fine.
Depending on the operating system Paulo is using, command-line utilities
such as 'curl' or 'wget' may also be available which support downloading
data using a variety of protocols, including ftp. Paulo could use Stata's
-shell- command to access such a command to download a file via ftp.
Alan
([email protected])
*
* 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/
