st: RE: RE: importing multiple text files

[Eric Booth <ebooth@ppri.tamu.edu>]

>
There's also a simpler version of this macro extended functions approach in section  //2.//  of this message:  http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2010-08/msg00751.html
Though I think you want to use -append- to combine all your files, not -merge- (sim. to the thread mentioned in my previous post), but it might be easier to follow the loop in this message.

- Eric
________________________________________
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] on behalf of Eric Booth [ebooth@ppri.tamu.edu]
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 12:18 PM
To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Subject: st: RE: importing multiple text files

>
Yes, it's possible.  Take a look at the macro extended functions (help extended_fcn) for selecting all files in directories--you can work with these in a loop to select each file in a folder(s) and append/merge them all together.
Here are two threads that do something similar to what you describe (including creating a variable (called 'filename') that identifies the file each record came from).

http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2010-11/msg00113.html

http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2010-01/msg00238.html

- Eric
________________________________________
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] on behalf of Harry Comber [h.comber@ncri.ie]
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 12:01 PM
To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Subject: st: importing multiple text files

I have 304 text files (Windows, comma-separated) with identical
structures (5 numeric variables) from 304 different cancer registries,
which I would like to import into Stata 10 and combine into a single
file. Each file has about 10,000 observations.  The files are named
using a unique numeric identifier for the registry from which it comes
(e.g. 38408099.csv) and I would like to also import this number as a
variable into the file in order to identify the data from that registry.
This is beyond my programming skills and I am not even sure it is
possible. I would appreciate some advice.

Harry Comber

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Fax +353 21 4318016
Email: h.comber@ncri.ie
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