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| From | Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> |
| To | "statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu" <statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu> |
| Subject | Re: st: How to re-program -save9- for Stata 13? |
| Date | Tue, 15 Oct 2013 17:44:24 +0100 |
Thanks, Stas. I imagine your answer summarises well the social and personal reasons behind many choices. There are always plenty such. For example, I don't use R over Stata because I invested far too much time, energy and affection in learning Stata to want to throw that away, long before R was evident. On the more technical aside, one user privately pointed to classification and regression trees as a strength of SPSS. Nick njcoxstata@gmail.com On 15 October 2013 17:26, Stas Kolenikov <skolenik@gmail.com> wrote: > Nick, it's a matter of habit, for the most part, I believe. It has > traditionally been used by social scientists who collect their data, > as it seems to have some sort of a data collection toolkit (which I > have never used). People like the GUI... and you have even save the > syntax from your point and click operations for later use! So that's > as far as the strengths go. Some of the tabulations can be adjusted > for a prettier output more conveniently than in Stata, though. > > Your question sounds a lot like "what drives people to use Stata if > they also have access to R?" that we both have heard a lot on > StackOverflow ;). So that's a disciplinary divide. A machine learning > blogger would insert a snippet of R code into their post to clarify > what they want to say without much thinking whether a different > software may exist. An economist would insert a snippet of Stata code, > as that is the language economists think in. Along these lines, public > opinion researchers think in terms of SPSS syntax. > > -- Stas Kolenikov, PhD, PStat (ASA, SSC) > -- Senior Survey Statistician, Abt SRBI > -- Opinions stated in this email are mine only, and do not reflect the > position of my employer > -- http://stas.kolenikov.name > > > > On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 10:19 AM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote: >> Not to knock SPSS, although for many that qualifies as an acceptable >> sport, but what drives people to use SPSS if they also have access to >> Stata? >> >> I am not trying to be ironic here. It is (literally) decades, i.e. >> sometime last century I think, since I last used SPSS, so I am quite >> out of touch on its relative strengths. >> >> Please take as understood that some users prefer its user interface. >> >> >> >> Nick >> njcoxstata@gmail.com >> >> >> On 15 October 2013 16:05, Sergiy Radyakin <serjradyakin@gmail.com> wrote: >>> Stas, >>> >>> Stata 8 and 9 share the same data format (specification 113), so >>> although SPSS says it writes in 5-8, it should equally read and write >>> 9 (perhaps the menu text was designed at the time Stata 9 did not >>> exist yet). Here is another reference it supports 9: >>> http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/mult_pkg/faq/fromStata_toSPSS.htm >>> >>> But introduction of reading Stata dataset capability was apparently >>> added in version 14 (contrary to the above reference): >>> http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/spssstat/v20r0m0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.spss.statistics.help%2Fwhatsnew_14.0.htm >>> >>> Furthermore, it seems the request for support of newer Stata formats >>> was requested still in the 17th generation of SPSS: >>> http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21477575 >>> >>> Best, Sergiy Radyakin >>> >>> >>> >>> On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 9:41 AM, Stas Kolenikov <skolenik@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> Sergiy, >>>> >>>> regarding 2), I have access at work to SPSS 21 that seems to work with >>>> Stata 8 files (at least their internal "Save As" gives options from >>>> Stata 5 through Stata 8). From Stata 12 that I have at work, the >>>> -save-d files (under version 12) cannot be read by SPSS, but -saveold- >>>> produces the version-8-compatible data set that SPSS can work with. >>>> >>>> -- Stas Kolenikov, PhD, PStat (ASA, SSC) >>>> -- Senior Survey Statistician, Abt SRBI >>>> -- Opinions stated in this email are mine only, and do not reflect the >>>> position of my employer >>>> -- http://stas.kolenikov.name >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 7:46 AM, Sergiy Radyakin <serjradyakin@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> Hello Marco, >>>>> >>>>> could you please explain a bit, why you see a need for such a program? >>>>> If you have Stata 13, this means you can use -saveold- to save in the >>>>> previous version, then following this FAQ all the way until version 5 >>>>> if necessary: >>>>> http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data-management/save-for-previous-version/ >>>>> >>>>> If you don't have Stata 13, then you use -use13- to load the data into >>>>> Stata 10 or later. >>>>> http://radyakin.org/transfer/use13/use13.htm >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> So I see potential clients as: >>>>> 1) people having Stata 9 and no access to newer versions; >>>>> 2) people having non-Stata software that can read dta format of 9, but >>>>> not newer and the software is not going to be updated, and there is no >>>>> access to Stata 10+ >>>>> >>>>> Regarding 1) I was told the # is pretty small, but I don't know what >>>>> 'small' really is. Regarding 2) I am interested in what is out there >>>>> (regardless whether maintained or not). Can we have a headcount of the >>>>> programs that directly read Stata datasets? Let me start: >>>>> ADePT v.5.50.5001.23617 (supports data from Stata 8 to 13) >>>>> ADePT Map v2 (supports data from Stata 8-11) >>>>> R (with package foreign) (supports data from Stata 5 to 12) >>>>> SPSS v.15+ (supports data from Stata X?X to 9?) >>>>> Stat/Transfer (supports data from any version of Stata) >>>>> etc. >>>>> >>>>> Regarding the implementation it is not at all difficult: the current >>>>> code of use13 and use10 contains all the necessary procedures to >>>>> implement save9 which I can do if there is any significant demand. >>>>> >>>>> Best, Sergiy Radyakin >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 8:54 AM, Marco Ercolani <m.g.ercolani@bham.ac.uk> wrote: >>>>>> Dear Statalisters, >>>>>> >>>>>> I am asking for suggestions on how I can re-program -save9- so that it will work in Stata 13. >>>>>> In other words, so it will save data in a Stata 9 format from within Stata 13. >>>>>> I can think of two possible strategies to achieve this within Stata 13: >>>>>> >>>>>> Strategy 1: Edit the contents of the dataset so they conform to Stata 9 protocols, save the file, >>>>>> then edit the the file header so that it appears to have been saved by Stata 9. >>>>>> >>>>>> Strategy 2: Use an existing save facility in Stata 13 that would allow me to impose limits on the >>>>>> data so it respects Stata 9 protocols. Does such a save facility exist? >>>>>> >>>>>> Any help on the above two approaches or helpful suggestions for a "third way" would be welcome. >>>>>> >>>>>> Marco Ercolani >>>>>> Department of Economics >>>>>> University of Birmingham >>>>>> >>>>>> * >>>>>> * For searches and help try: >>>>>> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search >>>>>> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/ >>>>>> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/ >>>>> * >>>>> * For searches and help try: >>>>> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search >>>>> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/ >>>>> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/ >>>> * >>>> * For searches and help try: >>>> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search >>>> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/ >>>> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/ >>> * >>> * For searches and help try: >>> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search >>> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/ >>> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/ >> * >> * For searches and help try: >> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search >> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/ >> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/ > * > * For searches and help try: > * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search > * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/ > * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/ * * For searches and help try: * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/ * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/