Re: st: RE: RE: SPSS to STATA

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

In addition,

1. If San K was misled by my wording "Stat/Transfer is software you
have to buy",  I meant "... if you want to use it". It is not
compulsory and it need not be essential.

2. On a different level, and for any who care, I urge that you not be
misled by those who write "a software", or something similar.
"Software" has always been a collective noun. Individual items of
software are programs, or whatever word makes most sense. The same
applies to "code". (Of course, languages change, but ....)

Nick

On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 2:16 PM, Maarten Buis <maartenlbuis@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 2:36 PM, San K wrote:
>> What's the point in buying another software or what's the point in
>> converting if you don't have SPSS or Stata?
>
> It is not uncommon for raw data to be available in a format that does
> not correspond with your favorite statistical package. In that case it
> is very handy to have one program around (stattransfer) that will
> allow you to turn almost any format into the format readable in your
> preferred package. You won't have this problem if you collect and type
> in your own data (than you choose in which format you store your
> data), or when you work in a discipline where everybody only uses your
> preferred package and this has been the case for a long time. However,
> things already get more complex when you collect your own data but
> hire an agency to do the typing for you (not uncommon when performing
> a survey). If you are working in an environment where you do not
> collect your own data or are dependent or collaboration with many
> other persons and many different statistical packages are used or have
> been used, than a piece of software like stattransfer becomes a real
> lifesaver.
*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/