Well, Stat/Transfer should be able to convert from txt-files to .dta
directly. There should be no need to open in Excel first. Also note the
existence of -ssc d stcmd-.
Martin Weiss
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-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gisella Young
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 5:05 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: st: problem in uploading data into Stata - data "changes"
Dear all,
I am trying to load a datafile in text format into Stata. I am using the
infix command. The problem is that 1 column of data (the firm column, which
is the unique identification number for each observation, is different when
I open it in Stata as from what I can see in the original text file. In fact
I have several such text files for various years, and in every case the
problem is the same: all variables upload correctly except for the first
one. Not only is that number different but it is no longer unique to each
observation. It is however the same number of digits as the original. I have
checked that the infix command is specified correctly (eg correct number of
digits).
I have also tried saving the text file into excel (and applying
text-to-columns) and then converting it into a stata file using
Stat-transfer. When I do this all the variable upload correctly into Stata.
The problem is that I cannot do this for the entire files because of their
size (the limits of Excel mean that only a small fraction of each file can
be accommodated), so this is not a solution.
I realise that it may be difficult for someone to suggest an
explanation/solution without seeing the actual data, but I wonder whether
there are any suggestions as to what the problem might potentially be, and
how to get around it?
Many thanks,
Gisella
*
* 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/
