Re: st: Census/Demographics Datasets

[Roberto Ferrer <refp16@gmail.com>]

I think Steve Samuels pointed you in the right direction. As suggested
in two of those pages, you can try using -copy- and -unzipfile- to
download all the data to your local drive and unzip it. Afterwards,
you can worry about importing it to Stata. The "readme" file
indicates:

"We are unable to provide one-on-one support for applications of the
data to specific spreadsheets or
data base software."

So my quick guess is unless someone has already done it and made the
files public, you won't find them as Stata data files.

Also,

"Once the package is unzipped, the files are in flat ASCII format."

So that gives you a head-start on the importing task.

Anyway, for the downloading and unzipping you can try:

*--------------- begin code --------------------

clear all
set more off

local sitestub "http://www2.census.gov/census_2010/04-Summary_File_1/";
local states Alabama Alaska
local statesabb al ak

local targetdir "~/Desktop/data/"

local n : word count `states'

forvalues i = 1/`n' {
    local a : word `i' of `states'
    local b : word `i' of `statesabb'

    display `"`sitestub'`a'/`b'2010.sf1.zip"'
    copy `"`sitestub'`a'/`b'2010.sf1.zip"'  `targetdir'

    display `"`targetdir'`b'2010.sf1.zip"'
    unzipfile `"`targetdir'`b'2010.sf1.zip"'
}

*--------------- end code -----------------------

This may work because the URL has a fixed structure. Something like:

http://www2.census.gov/census_2010/04-Summary_File_1/STATE/STATE-ABBREVIATION-2010.sf1.zip

So create a list of USA states and their abbreviations, save that into
macros, and using extended macro functions,
loop to create links for each state and download. The code above has
two states and two abbreviations. You need to complete it (easily done
with an internet search) and change the macro -targetdir- to your
desired target directory. The -display-s are just there so you can
check the links that are being created.

See -help macro-, -help extended_fcn-, -help copy-, help unzipfile- and

http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/programming/looping-over-parallel-lists/

On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 10:45 PM, Michael Stewart
<michaelstewartresearch@gmail.com> wrote:
> HI  ,
>
> I am not sure if I understand your answers properly and I apologize if
> there is any confusion.
>
> I am looking for demographic details of USA(as a whole) and individual
> states. The procedure recommended by census.gov website seems to be
> cumbersome(http://www.census.gov/2010census/news/press-kits/summary-file-1.html)
> i.e.,I have to download the census files for each individual state
> (total 52 times) to get census of USA .
>
> Therefore, I was requesting if any stata list subscriber would know of
> an easier, less cumbersome method to download the datasets directly
> over the internet(preferably in stata format).
>
> Please let me know if  know any link/website where I can download such
> datasets .
>
> Thank you again for your time .
>
> On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 11:22 PM, Steve Samuels <sjsamuels@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Michael Stewart <michaelstewartresearch@gmail.com>:
>>
>> There is related information at:
>>
>> 1. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19498050/stata-python-downloading-
>> files-from-a-ftp-site-in-stata-or-in-python (The accepted answer was
>> supplied by a well-known Statalister.)
>>
>> 2. www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2007-01/msg00852.html
>>
>> 3. http://blog.stata.com/2010/12/01/automating-web-downloads-and-file-
>> unzipping/
>>
>> If files are not in Stata format, you can run StatTransfer commands in
>> Stata via -shell-.
>>
>> Steve
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 4, 2014, at 8:09 PM, Nick Cox wrote:
>>
>> You could start with the help for -use-. The very first example shows
>> -use- in play reading a .dta file over the internet. The same
>> principles apply to other forms of data file.
>>
>> Nick
>> njcoxstata@gmail.com
>>
>>
>> On 4 January 2014 19:41, Michael Stewart
>> <michaelstewartresearch@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Is there a way to download Census/demographics datasets  from Internet
>>> to stata directly . Thank you very much for your time.
>> *
>> *   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/
>
>
>
> --
> Thank you ,
> Yours Sincerely,
> Mike.
> *
> *   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/