RE: st: Problems reading in comma separated files

[Orian Brook <ob11@st-andrews.ac.uk>]

Thanks Ronán. I guess that I might have to resort to using Access - I've
tried using filefilter to get rid of the dodgy characters, but it doesn't
seem to be doing the job - when I view invisibles there are more of them
still there, although hexdump says not. I could use a text editor to resave
the files, but then I might as well just do the job in Access ...

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
[mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Ronan Conroy
Sent: 10 June 2011 15:39
To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Subject: Re: st: Problems reading in comma separated files

On 2011 Meith 10, at 15:01, Orian Brook wrote:

> In Stata 10/SE using insheet, the file is correctly identified as having
20
> variables, but the column headings are not read, and if you browse the
data
> it shows all cells as blank except the first, which reads ?ÿþt?. 

That's not ASCII, it's NASTII. 

I have come across cases before where non-ASCII characters cause premature
end to input. The most hideous is the NULL character which, as you might
imagine, is utterly invisible under normal conditions. 

At the very least, open the files and view invisibles. 

If you have a text editor, you can simply convert the files to ASCII.
BBEdit, which I use, has a command that replaces non-ASCII characters with
ASCII ones. 


Ronán Conroy
rconroy@rcsi.ie
Associate Professor
Division of Population Health Sciences
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Beaux Lane House
Dublin 2


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