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1. dBASE Files and Compatibles Supported Programs 101 Epi Info Stat Transfer will read and write files for Epi Info a free statistical program developed by the Center for Disease Control All versions through Version Six are supported Standard Extension rec Reading Epi Info Files The Epi Info rec contains both a dictionary with enough information for the program to construct a data entry screen for the file and the data itself in ASCII format Stat Transfer will use the data entry description field as the variable label if it is present Writing Epi Info Files Because Epi Info files are basically formatted ASCH they are not suitable for numbers which vary widely in magnitude Keeping in mind that the rec file is also a data entry template Stat Transfer will make its best effort to make an attractive and functional one Labels will be used if available for vari able descriptions Missing Data Blank fields are used by Epi Info for missing values Stat Transfer recognizes this when reading Epi Info files Missing values will be written as blanks on output to Epi Info format Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to Epi Info from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Number width 4 0 decimal places int Number width 6 0 decimal places long Number width 11 0 decimal places
2. 110 Supported Programs date Date time Time date time Date time JMP Files LIMDEP Files Stat Transfer supports LIMDEP Version 7 for Windows LIMDEP is an econometric software pro gram for the analysis of limited dependent variables Standard Extension pj Reading LIMDEP Files LIMDEP has only a single data type consisting of double precision numbers Writing LIMDEP Files Stat Transfer enforces LIMDEP s 200 variable limit Character variables cannot be exported to LIMDEP since the program does not support them Missing Values LIMDEP recognizes missing values Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to LIMDEP from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type string Not exported byte Number int long float double date time datetime LIMDEP Files Supported Programs 111 Matlab Files Matlab matrices through Version 5 are supported on the following platforms Macintosh Windows amp OS 2 Unix HP Sun IBM Matlab datasets for version 7 are also supported Standard Extension mat Reading Matlab Files Stat Transfer will automatically recognize an input file s platform of origin on input Matlab does not write variable names into the file Therefore Stat Transfer makes up a variable name for each column colm which consists of the string col plus the number of the column A
3. are available for use in variable expressions Operators The following relational operators are available z where EDUC gt 12 4 gt I Preserve expression between transfers The scrolling text box in the upper left corner provides brief on screen documentation on how to se lect particular data records based on conditions that you specify The variables of the input data set are listed in the box at the right of the screen At the bottom of the screen is the case selection field in which you enter the case selection or WHERE expression that will specify cases This expression gives the conditions on the variables that will define the subgroup of the data set that you wish to select Variable names can be entered in this field by selecting their names from the variable list box When you double click on a variable name it will be copied to the case selection box Selecting Cases from the Input File The scrolling text box in the upper left corner provides brief on screen documentation on how to se lect particular data records based on conditions that you specify The variables of the input data set are listed in the box at the right of the screen At the bottom of the screen is the case selection field in which you enter the case selection or WHERE expression that will specify cases This expression gives the conditions on the variables that will define the subgroup of the data set that you wish to select Varia
4. Preserve Input Widths By default Stat Transfer will optimize your data and write fixed format ASCII data into the narrow est width that is possible Stat Transfer also formats ASCII data using a format in which the decimal point is allowed to float In some cases particularly for SPSS files that were originally created from fixed format ASCH data or for fixed format data read with a Stat Transfer Schema the input file will contain enough informa tion to skip the optimization step and write out a file that has the same widths as the data that were originally input to SPSS If this is the case for your data and you want fixed decimals and the original widths check this option Options Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 37 Note that for most other file formats this option will result in incorrect output You should check your results and use this option at your own risk Reading SAS Value Labels Stat Transfer can read SAS user defined formats value labels directly from a Windows SAS catalog file from a catalog or data set in a CPORT library from SAS data files for all supported platforms and from a SAS Transport library SAS Value Labels Reading You can choose whether and how user defined formats are to be read using the selections from the drop down menu Do not read formats If this option the default is selected no formats will be read Read directly from a catalog file sas7bcat If you have a Win
5. The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table ASCII Files Fixed Format Supported Programs 91 Output to Fixed Format ASCII from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Number int with a precision of up to long 15 decimal places float double string Character date Character time date time 92 Supported Programs ASCII Files Fixed Format SCHEMA Files for ASCII Input The SCHEMA file is used to describe an input ASCII file to Stat Transfer If you are using a fixed format ASCII file that was not created by Stat Transfer then you must create the SCHEMA file before you read the fixed format ASCII file into Stat Transfer If you are using a delimited ASCH file as input you may use a SCHEMA file to specify variable names labels and missing values in a more detailed way than is allowed by the automatic method de scribed in the section Delimted ASCH Files Page 87 The SCHEMA file should be a plain ASCII text file with the extension sts Stat Transfer Schema You can create it with any text editor that will create plain text It is most straightforward if your ASCII data file has the same name as the SCHEMA file but with the extension dat and is located in the same directory the SCHEMA file If this is not the case you can override this default with the FILE command as discussed below Creating a SCHEMA File Fixed Delimited
6. You can give the variables that you wish to transfer or to omit either as a list or in a file Specifying a List of Variables KEEP or DROP can be followed by a list of variables to be used or omitted respectively The vari ables should be separated by spaces or commas KEEP DROP variablelist Ranges can be given and wildcards are allowed For example drop age satl sat10 inc will drop the variables age satl through sat10 and all fields beginning with inc Using a File to Specify Variables with KEEP or DROP If you have a file containing a list of variables to be kept or dropped then instead of a variable list af ter the KEEP or DROP commands you can specify the name of the file preceded with an symbol For example keep varkeep lst will read the file varkeep st for a list of variables to be kept These can be delimited with spaces or new lines The VARS command discussed below can be used to create the file Note that files used with KEEP or DROP cannot contain the target output types for input variables Such files must be read with the TYPES command The VARS Command To facilitate the creation of a file containing selected input variables a command is available that will write a list of variables to a file VARS filename variablelist oc where filename is the name with a standard extension of the input file containing the variables to be transferred and variablelist is the name of t
7. Stop Reading This is the default behavior After finding the beginning of the data by identify ing the first non blank cell Stat Transfer will read data until it encounters an entirely blank line It will end the transfer at this point 40 The Stat Transfer User Interface Options Dialog Box Skip Blank Rows If the option Skip Blank Rows is chosen Stat Transfer will read the entire worksheet page searching for and returning further non blank rows However any blank rows that it finds will not be written out Return Blank Rows If this option is selected then all rows of the input worksheet page includ ing blank ones will be written to the output file This option may return unexpected blank rows from the end of a page that contains formatting but no data Numeric Missing Value If there is a string in your worksheet such as NA that you would like to have treated as a numeric missing value enter it here Note that a single is treated as missing by default Concatenate Worksheet Pages The option Concatenate Worksheet Pages allows you to combine worksheet pages into a single out put file This option is appropriate if your worksheet contains many sheets that are identical in struc ture These can be then be combined into a single output file of any type For example you may have a workbook that has 50 sheets with one sheet for each state and the same variables on each sheet If you check this box Stat Transfer wil
8. The structure of the SCHEMA file is the following FILE file specification when required FORMAT fixed delimited delimiter FIRST LINE n when required VARIABLES when required Variable name variable list variable range columns variable type Variable name variable type Optional elements for the VARIABLES command Missing value specs Variable label Value label tag Optional commands VARIABLE LABELS Variable name variable label VALUE LABELS label tag value label valne label DATA when required Each of the major commands FILE FORMAT FIRST LINE VARIABLES VARIABLE LABELS VALUE LABELS and DATA must begin in the first space on a line All other elements must be in dented at least one space or tab Commands in the Schema file are not case sensitive For fixed format data the most basic SCHEMA file consists of a list of variable names followed by their column locations and for non numeric variables the variable type in parentheses SCHEMA Files for ASCI Input Supported Programs 93 For delimited data the most basic Schema file consists of a list of variable names and the types in parentheses of all variables Note that the SCHEMA syntax is similar to SPSS DATA LIST syntax but is more convenient to use There is no MISSING VALUES command because missing values can be defined along with the variables Similarly variable labels can be defined alongside the variables Value labels are attached with tag
9. by the path to Stat Transfer Starting Transfers from the Operating System Prompt You can run a transfer directly from the operating system prompt If you give the st command and you give input and output file names or a command file name you will carry out an immediate data transfer without seeing the Stat Transfer prompt Log Dialog Box The Command Processor 51 The Copy Command Transfers from the Command Processor The basic command used when running the Stat Transfer command processor is COPY which has the following form COPY infilename ex1 outfilename ex2 xl x2 where infilename ex and outfilename ex2 are the input and output files respectively and ex and ex2 are standard extensions used to determine the file types See Page 56 for standard extensions The file names can be complete file specifications An alternative for specifying the file type is to use a file type tag instead of a standard extension This is discussed on Page 56 Parameters xi following the file names allow some options to be selected such as automatic optimi zation of variables or suppression of warning messages See Page 58 You can give additional commands before you give the COPY command These allow you to select cases and variables to manually change output variable types and to set a number of options See Pages 68 70 Note that these commands can be given only at the Stat Transfer prompt or in a com mand file or in a start
10. double This is the safest option and is now the default However most data are not measured with more than eight or nine digits of precision survey data for example never are Therefore if you need to save space on output and do not need more preci sion you can change the default behavior so that only floats are used You can reset the Use Doubles option by clicking on the Options tab selecting General Options and uncheck the Use Double box Alternatively for a single transfer you can uncheck the Use Double box at the bottom right of the Variables dialog box and then press the Optimize button Variables Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 23 Observations Dialog Box When you click on the Observations tab at the top of the dialog boxes you will see the Observations dialog box which allows you to select specific cases or records from your data set lt gt Stat Transfer Of x Transfer Variables Observations Options Run Program Log About Case Selection You can select cases by entering a case selection statement in the box below The case selection or where statement has the following form where variable expression operator condition Variable Expressions You can specify a single variable or an expression involving several variables To insert a variable name select the variable in the list box at the right and then double click All of the usual arithmetic operators
11. long float Real double Double date Date time POSIX timestamp date time note the timezone is not set so the time will be in GMT R Supported Programs 125 SAS Data Files Stat Transfer will read and write SAS Version 6 9 data files for the Windows OS 2 and Unix plat forms Version 6 04 for PC DOS can be read but not written Standard extensions Version 6 PC DOS ssd Windows amp OS 2 sd2 Unix HP Sun IBM ssd01 Versions 7 9 sas7bdat Reading and Writing SAS Data Large files gt 2 GB are now supported on both input and output The number of variables is now unlimited Both 32 and 64 bit files are supported on input and output Read and write support for the maximum character variable length 32K has been added Reading SAS Data Files Stat Transfer will read data files written by SAS Version 6 08 and above Compressed files both RDC amp RLE for Version 7 and higher can now be read SAS data files differ significantly between platforms Stat Transfer will read files written by SAS for all SAS platforms except for VAX VMS and IBM MVS Stat Transfer will automatically recognize the type of SAS file on input If you are moving SAS data files between platforms you should be sure that you use a binary file transfer method User formats value labels can be directly read from Windows SAS catalogs and CPORT files Thus there is no longer any need to convert these to data sets in order to read formats
12. vert it to a multi byte Chinese character set Stat Transfer will simply stop in its tracks since this is impossible unless the characters consist only of numbers simple punctuation and the letters A Z For file formats that are Unicode aware e g Excel and SAS 9 Stat Transfer will write Unicode regardless of how you set this option ODBC Options The following options allow you to fine tune your ODBC transfers They are generally for advanced users Use NULL instead of empty strings A null string is a string for which a value has never been entered while an empty string has zero length Most databases support both NULL and empty strings Oracle is the exception which con verts empty strings to NULL strings If you check this box Stat Transfer will write NULLS instead of empty strings into your database Prefer datetime over smalldatetime for MS SQL Server The smalldatetime type in MS SQL Server represents the dates between Jan 1 1900 to June 6 2079 with accuracy to a minute If this is sufficient for your needs and you want to save space uncheck this option The DateTime type in contrast represents time values to an accuracy of close to 3 mil liseconds and dates back to 1753 34 The Stat Transfer User Interface Options Dialog Box Prefer w varchar over w char On output if your data are stored in char or its Unicode variant wchar the length of the field will be equal to the length of its wides
13. 19 19 20 21 22 24 24 25 26 Options Dialog Box General Options User Missing Values Date Time Formats Reading Date Time Formats Writing Encoding Options ODBC Options ASCIl Text Files Read Options ASCIl Text Files Write Options Reading SAS Value Labels Writing SAS Value Labels Worksheets JMP Options R and S PLUS Options Output Options 1 Output Options 2 User Interface Options Data Viewer Options Stat Transfer Program Generation Automatic Transfer Logging Restoring and Saving Options Run Program Dialog Box Creating a Program Automatically from the User Interface Creating a Program Manually Running a Program Log Dialog Box Stat Transfer Log Log Level Save Log File Clear Log Send Error Report to Support The Command Processor Starting the Command Processor The Copy Command Transfers from the Command Processor Transfers from the Operating System Prompt Combining Files Specifying the File Type File Format Specification Special Cases when Specifying Files Options Set by Parameters after COPY Options for Pages and Tables Options for Variables Options for Messages Selecting Cases Selecting Variables KEEP and DROP Commands 28 28 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 38 39 40 41 41 42 42 43 43 44 45 46 47 47 47 48 49 49 49 50 50 50 51 51 52 52 53 54 55 55 57 58 58 60 61 63 64 64 Changing Output Variable Types 66 The TYPES Command 66 Ch
14. Setting Options with the SET Command When using the command processor most of the options in the user interface are available Some of these options are set by parameters following the COPY command discussed on Page 58 Al others are selected with a SET command The general form of this command is SET optionname value These SET commands should be given before the COPY command A list of available options set with the SET command can be obtained on the screen by typing either of the following help set help set all Note that these options are not available for transfers run by typing them in on the operating system command line unless you use the startup options file discussed below Setting Options If you wish you can type each SET command in at the Stat Transfer prompt before you give the COPY command However if several options are to be set this can be tedious and error prone In stead a list of all of the available options and their default settings can be written out to a file filename by typing SET LIST filename Using the resulting file settings can be conveniently edited and then used in a command file see Page 75 or in the startup options file discussed below Startup Options File You can set options globally and automatically at startup by putting them in a file called profile stcmd which should be in the same directory as your Stat Transfer program file If the file profile stcmd is found it wil
15. Stat Transfer also allows precise and easy manual control over the storage format of your output variables in case this is necessary In addition to converting the formats of variables Stat Transfer also processes missing values auto matically Stat Transfer can save hours and even days of manual labor while at the same time eliminating error Furthermore you gain this speed and accuracy without losing flexibility since Stat Transfer allows you to select just the variables and cases you want to transfer In addition to the standard graphical user interface Stat Transfer s command processor allows you to run a transfer in batch mode using a command file The user interface can automatically generate a command file to exactly reproduce your data transfer operations This makes it straightforward to set up fully automated batch procedures for repetitive tasks and allows you to precisely document the work that you have done Introduction 1 Supported File Types Version 10 of Stat Transfer will support the file types given below 1 2 3 Access ASCII Delimited ASCII Fixed Format dBASE and compatible formats Epi Info Excel FoxPro Gauss HTML tables JMP LIMDEP Matlab Mineset Minitab NLOGIT ODBC OSIRIS read only Paradox Quattro Pro R SAS Data files SAS CPORT read only SAS Transport S PLUS SPSS Data SPSS Portable Stata Statistica SYSTAT Triple S For data archiving and exchange Stat Transfer will write ASCII da
16. Write a Proc Format program on the Writing SAS Value Labels section of the Options dialog box to enable the writing of SAS labels The program file will by default be written to the same directory as your output data file with the same name as your output file but with the extension sas You can change this default in the File name edit box You can type in a complete file specification here if you wish See Writing SAS Value Labels Page 39 for details 130 Supported Programs SAS Value Labels Transferring Value Labels with Data When you carry out a transfer with a SAS data file as output Stat Transfer will check to see if you have checked the option Write a Proc Format program During the transfer it will then write a SAS PROC program file with the name taken from the Filename line In this case assuming that you have used the default name and directory it will create a program file named outfilename sas in the same directory as the output SAS data file For example if you write a SAS data file called out sas7bdat the SAS program will be in the same directory as the output file and will be named out sas The program file has the PROC FORMAT and MODIFY statements necessary to create the SAS cata log file Once the program file has been created you can run it in SAS SAS Value Labels Supported Programs 131 SAS CPORT The SAS CPORT is primarily used for transporting data libraries between machines Stat Transfer will r
17. Your database server and or network may be down You might not have proper access rights or the proper password for your database We suggest you try to connect to your database with another tool preferably one that is supplied by your database vendor or a general tool such as Microsoft Excel If you still encounter difficulties you should first seek support from your local database administrator and or the vendor who supplied your database or driver Q How can I join two tables in a relational database A Many database systems allow you to define a view that will appear to Stat Transfer as a single table If you database allows this it is the simplest and most robust way of joining tables for Stat Transfer If this option is not available the Stat Transfer command processor allows you to sub mit an SQL select statement It is simply passed through to your ODBC driver so it must be legal SQL for your particular database driver SAS Data Files Q Stat Transfer won t read my SAS data file What s wrong A First we don t support every platform Check the sections on SAS files If your SAS data are not in one of these formats we cannot read it and you should use SAS to create a SAS Transport file Further we cannot read data that have been encrypted If your data have been written with encryp tion you must use SAS to copy the file to an unencrypted format Finally if you are moving the file from another platform mak
18. and date time variables The de fault input format is constructed so that it will decipher a number of different date and time possibilities Note that if you are using a Schema file to describe your data the date and time formats given there will override the formats set here The separate input formats for date time and date time variables are given in the Date Time and Date Time edit boxes and must match those given in the general scanning input format The entries in these edit boxes are used when the data file is being used in a transfer and allow for much more ef ficient reading of the file The input format strings given in the Scan Date Time and Date Time edit boxes are used to convert character strings to date time variables The format strings are read from left to right If a width is given explicitly for a particular variable that will be used when reading the character string Otherwise the width will be determined by the presence of delimiter characters Characters in the list below allow characters in a string to be skipped if necessary If the entire input string is not matched by the format string or if the resulting time or date is not valid the variable will be set to missing Each date and time part of the input format as well as some special characters have the form Yochar or Xchar where the modifier X is used to determine field widths The two different cases of Xchar are Y
19. float double Number width 16 decimal places taken from input data If decimal places unknown set to 4 string Text date time date time 102 Supported Programs Epi Info Date Text written according to the ASCII format options currently in effect Excel Worksheets Stat Transfer will read and write files from Excel It will read all versions and will write Version 2 1 files and files for Excel 97 and higher versions Note that Excel 97 and higher versions support long strings up to 32K and more up to 64K records in a worksheet Excel 2007 has vastly increased limits over earlier versions The maximum number of columns has been increased from 256 to 65 536 and the maximum number of rows has increased from 16 384 to over one million Note however this does not mean that Excel is an appropriate tool for very large datasets You will find that the time to load very large files is agonizingly slow Standard Extension xls Reading Excel Worksheet Files Because worksheet files are in general not designed to hold statistical data only worksheets in certain formats can be read Worksheets must be in worksheet database format or in certain modifications of this It is most straightforward with worksheets in database format Database format Worksheet database files are structured worksheets where each row is a single case and each column contains a variable Data can consist of numbers including s
20. the extension indicates a Transport file Write Proc Format program for SAS File name for Proc Format program Reading of worksheet variable names No name Number WKS DATA RANGE Coordinates WKS BLANK ROWS CONCATENATE PAGES Y N WKS NA STRING string 70 The Command Processor Autosense Name Stop Skip Use Specifying a data range as input Treatment of worksheet null rows Concatenate worksheet pages into a single output file Indicate a string to be considered numeric missing when reading worksheets Setting Options with the SET Command WKS WRITE VNAMES _ Y N Write a field name row in worksheet output JMP Options JMP LABELS Y N Write value labels into JMP files JMP CUST PROPERTIES Y N Append custom properties to variable labels when reading JMP files R and S Plus Options FACTOR AS STRING Y N Convert factors into strings Y or leave as numerical variables with labeled values N R OLD NA Y N Write Version One missing strings Output Options AS OUTREP Alpha_True64 SAS data representation Alpha_Vms_32 Alpha_Vms_64 Alpha_Ia64 Hp_Ux_32 Hp Ux 64 Intel_ Abi Linux_32 Mips_Abi Os2 Rs_ 6000 Aix 32 Rs_ 6000 Aix 64 Solaris_32 Solaris_64 Windows_32 Windows_64 MLAB DATETIME AS STRING Y N Write Matlab Date Time values as strings STAT7 VLAB DESCRIP Y N Concatenate Statistica 7 value labels and descriptions SET Options Used Only in Command Processor Write Older Version of Output
21. ting Use current system default code page If that is checked you will be able to see which code page is in use on your computer That code page will then be used for files that that do not have known encoding information If the encoding of an input file can be determined from the contents of the file or its format that will of course override this setting If you choose to override the default behavior you can choose a different encoding by first selecting the Region and then the Character set Because Stat Transfer represents characters internally in Unicode any character set can in principle be converted on input However if you select an incor rect character set what you will get is likely to be nonsense Therefore we strongly urge you to look carefully at your data in the viewer to make sure that all is well and to make sure that the font you have selected for the viewer is capable of displaying the characters you need Output Character Set Unless you are sure of what you are doing you should leave this option at the default setting Use current system default code page This is especially true for the output character set because any input character set can be converted to our internal representation Unicode However you have to get it just right when going from Unicode to another single or multi byte character set or you will be guaranteed to get total nonsense For instance if you have read a Japanese file and then want to con
22. your variables before they are transferred and to change any output types that you wish This is dis cussed in the next section Manually Changing the Types of Output Variables In most cases it is appropriate let Stat Transfer automatically optimize your variables and to accept the output type that Stat Transfer chooses However there may be times when you wish to specify the output types for some variables Changing Target Output Types The Variables dialog box displays a list of all of the variables in the input data set When the input file is opened Stat Transfer assigns target output types based on information in the data file dictio nary and displays them next to the list of variables These will not be the final target output type as signed by Stat Transfer The final output type will be assigned automatically during the optimization pass You can change the output variable types by using the Optimize button on the right side of the Vari ables dialog box after you have selected all of the variables that you wish to transfer When you press the Optimize button the optimization step will take place before the data are trans ferred After the optimization step you can examine the target types that Stat Transfer has chosen for your variables and change any that are not appropriate After you press the Optimize button to see the final target output type choose one of the variables in the list box on the left and the output type a
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24. ERROR OK Y N Preserve input variable widths in output programs Read value labels Name of SAS value label catalog or data file Name of the catalog in the CPORT file to be used for reading formats Name of the dataset in a CPORT or Transport file to be used for reading formats Continue processing if no format file is found Ignore errors in processing SAS catalog The various choices for reading SAS value labels are discussed for the section SAS Value Label Op tions on Page 38 The following SET command sequences correspond to these choices Do not read formats Read directly from a catalog file Read from a catalog in a CPORT library Read from a SAS datafile Read from a dataset in a CPORT library Read from a SAS Transport file SAS Value Labels Writing WRITE SAS FMTS Y N WRITE FMT NAME ___ Filespec Worksheet Options WKS NAME ROW Autosense First row SET READ SAS FMTS N SET READ SAS FMTS Y SET READ FMT NAME filename sas7bcat the extension indicates a catalog file SET READ SAS FMTS Y SET READ FMT NAME filename stc the extension indicates a CPORT library SET UDF CAT MEMBER catalogname SET READ SAS FMTS Y SET READ FMT NAME filename sas7bdat the extension indicates a data file SET READ SAS FMTS Y SET READ FMT NAME filename stc the extension indicates a CPORT library SET UDF DAT MEMBER datasetname SET READ SAS FMTS Y SET READ FMT NAME filename tpt SET UDF DAT MEMBER datasetname
25. File WRITE OLD VER Y N or Number N By default a particular output file type will be written using the latest version supported by Stat Transfer For example Stata Version 10 11 files will be written if Stata is specified as the output file type Note that Stat Version 10 and 11 files are the same To write a file for a previous version of a particular file type use either of the SET commands SET WRITE OLD VER Y N SET WRITE OLD VER versionnum where versionnum is the version number of the output file you wish If you use the first form of the SET command Stat Transfer will use the next to the last version of the output file type you have selected For example if you have selected a Stata output file then set write old ver y Setting Options with the SET Command The Command Processor 71 would tell Stat Transfer to write a Stata Version 9 output file since Version 10 and 11 files are the same If you wished to create a Stata 5 output file you would use set write old ver 5 Note that you can use either form if you wish to use the next to the last version Reset Variable Selection Statement DROP KEEP Clear Save If data are transferred from more than one input file during a single session then you need to specify the variables that are to be transferred from each file using the KEEP or DROP variable selection command The DROP KEEP option of the SET command allows you to reuse or clear the variable selection com
26. If you use standard file extensions for your input and output file names these will usually tell the Stat Transfer command processor what kind of file is to be read or written Occasionally you will need to add a file type tag as well File Type Tags File type tags are needed in two different situations e For output files when the standard extension for different versions of a file type is the same e For file names that do not have standard extensions Distinguishing Versions of an Output File Type In those cases where different versions of a given file type use the same standard extension the stan dard extension will not enable Stat Transfer to distinguish between different versions on output To write a version other than the default version the output file name must be preceded by a file type tag which identifies the appropriate output version Note that for JMP files a file type tag may be necessary on input as well For example Stata and Stata SE both have the standard extension dta By default if the output file name has the extension dta a standard Stata file will be written If you wish to write a Stat SE file then the output file name must be preceded by the file type tag stata se Whenever the same standard extension appears in the table below for different versions of a given file type you must use a file type tag The default version is marked with an asterisk File Names without Standard Extensions If your file does
27. Most recently used lists Multiple file transfers Multiple worksheet pages N New features NLOGIT files Numeric variable names O Observations dialog box ODBC appending to tables null vs empty strings options output table names selecting tables table owner option ODBC data sources DBR and DBW commands running batch jobs specifying command processor 49 51 43 45 74 21 14 43 82 84 150 112 113 42 16 39 42 13 132 13 59 129 24 27 35 69 117 troubleshooting using CONNSTR to connect Older file versions writing Online documentation Optimizing output variables Options ASCII date time formats ASCII files read ASCII files write ASCII generated programs command program generation doubles DROP KEEP command general messages output variable names overwriting file warning pages and tables restoring and saving sampling seed SAS value labels SET commands show messages startup options file user interface user missing values variable name case conversions worksheets input Options dialog box Options switch character Options command processor set by parameters set by SET commands OSIRIS files Output file format selecting Output file name options Output file specification Output options Output variable types default target Output variable types changing Output variables floats option optimization Overwrite file warning P Pages and tables options Pages selecting worksheet P
28. Questions Q How big a data set can Stat Transfer handle A There is no limit on the number of cases that can be handled Q How do the date formatting functions know how to write out the proper weekday and month names for languages other than English A Stat Transfer retrieves the localized day and month names from the Windows registry If they are correct for your locality they will be correct in Stat Transfer Q I have a large number of files to transfer I don t want to spend my day pointing and clicking What should I do A Use the Stat Transfer Command Processor It is documented in your manual and in a separate chapter in the online help It will let you do some extremely powerful things such as extract all of the tables from an Access database in a single command or copy a whole directory full of Excel spread sheets to Stata files It s the middle of the night before a crucial deadline and my transfer won t work What should I 8 do A It s like airplane travel If you can t get a direct flight between Chicago and Los Angeles try to get one that stops in Dallas Consider what formats your destination program will read and the for mats Stat Transfer will write Or if you are having trouble reading a file from another program con sider any different file formats that it is capable of saving There is usually more than one route between your source and your destination Q What is the best way to pass data
29. The question mark matches exactly one character while the asterisk matches more than one Unlike standard wildcards more than one asterisk can be included in a specification For instance inc will match any variable with the string inc in any position Ranges of contiguous variables can be specified with a dash without spaces between two variable names For instance distance a9 will select or drop variables distance through a9 inclusive Space or comma delimited lists of conditions can be entered at one time For example factorl cluster a2 al0 L1 followed by a click on the Drop button will uncheck the variables factor1 cluster a2 through al0 and any variable which starts with the string L1 If needed you can successively refine your selection by entering conditions and then clicking on ei ther the Drop or Keep buttons or alternatively by manually checking or unchecking variables in the list box Variable Selection Indicator Select all of the variables you want to transfer When you have finished you can click on the Trans fer tab at the top of the dialog box and you will return to the Transfer dialog box where you will see a message telling you how many variables have been selected Value Labels Browser If your input file has value labels the option Value Label Browser allows you to display them for each variable This option is set by clicking on the
30. Transfer Target Type Output Type byte int long Integer float Float double Double string String time date date time Minitab Worksheets 114 Supported Programs Mineset Files Time Date Minitab is a general statistics package from Minitab Inc Stat Transfer will read Minitab worksheets written by Versions 8 12 of Minitab and writes Version 11 worksheets Standard extension mtw Reading Minitab Worksheets Stat Transfer reads Minitab columns It does not read the constants or matrices that may be stored in Minitab worksheets Version 12 of Minitab introduced a new project file type that may contain several worksheets along with other data Stat Transfer does not extract separate worksheets from these project files You will need to use Minitab to save the worksheets you wish to transfer as separate worksheet files Writing Minitab Worksheets Stat Transfer writes Minitab columns Missing Values Minitab recognizes missing values Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to Minitab from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Number int long float double string Text date Date time Time date time Minitab Worksheets Supported Programs 115 NLOGIT Files Stat Transfer supports NLOGIT Version 3 for Windows NLOGIT is an econometric software pro gra
31. User Interface 31 N input milliseconds or tenths or hundredths of seconds If no field width is given and the input string has a field width of three then input will be milliseconds A field width of 1 either given explicitly or inferred from the input string will cause input of 10ths of a second a width of 2 will cause input of 100ths of a second p input strings defining am and pm Matching is the same as for months S input seconds w skip a whitespace delimited word see also c y input year If less than 100 the century changeover year is used to determine the actual year Y input year as found in the input string input the T and characters from the input string l optional specification Text and specifications within the brackets will be read if present in the input string but need not be there The default format for scanning times in text files is Yom od y YoH M S N Yop 0 3e I which will recognize such diverse strings as May 18 1945 May 18 1945 5 18 45 05 18 45 2 16 PM Century Changeover Year When you are reading two digit years some may fall in the twenty first century and some in the twentieth You can use this option to control how two digit years are read Any two digit year less than the changeover year will have the first two digits of the complete four digit year set to 20 Any year greater than or equal to the
32. command file at the Stat Transfer prompt by typing EX commandfilename If you enter commandfilename without an extension an extension of stcmd is assumed by Stat Transfer A command file named weekly stcmd could be executed by typing ex weekly Executing Command Files from the Operating System Prompt You can execute a command file at the operating system prompt by typing ST commandfilename stcmd In order to use command files from the operating system prompt you will need to be in the directory in which you installed Stat Transfer or have a path defined to it or give the path explicitly Command Files The Command Processor 75 For example a command file repeat stcmd will be executed if at the operating system prompt you type st repeat stcmd Note that the extension which is explicitly given must be stcmd If the file is not in the Stat Trans fer program directory the complete path to it must be given If you do the same transfers repeatedly the ability to execute command files in this way allows you to set up a shortcut that will perform your transfers with a single click on a desktop icon Running and Editing Command Files from the Windows Explorer When you double click on a Stat Transfer command file in the Windows Explorer the command pro cessor will be launched and the command file executed If the last command in the file is quit you will be taken directly back to the Explorer Otherwise the co
33. data set If your data are consistent so that the first few lines suffice to show each variable type and your data have enough rows that it actually takes more than a few seconds to examine them all you might want to set this option to a numeric limit such as 50 Decimal Point If your data set uses a symbol other than the default period to indicate the decimal point in a number a comma for example enter the character on the Decimal Point line Thousands Separator If your data set uses a symbol other than the default comma to mark thousands in a number a period for example enter the character on the Thousands Separator line ASCIl Text Files Write Options Delimiter The Delimiter option will give you a list of possible delimiters for output ASCII files You can choose a delimiter from the list commas tabs spaces and semicolons or if you have a delimiter that is not on the list click on Other and enter the delimiter you wish to use The default is a comma String Quote Character The character specified here will be written before and after string variables on output It is typically a double quote This character is only strictly necessary if your fields have an embedded delimiter If you enter a blank here string fields will not be enclosed by any character Numeric Missing Value It is possible to specify the string that will be used to represent missing values when Stat Transfer writes ASCII files For example
34. directory indata and write them out in Stata for mat you would use copy indata mdb outdata dta t Selecting Members of SAS Transport Files Whenever you select a SAS Transport file as input the first member will be the one used as the input data set unless you select another one If the data you wish to use are in a different member you must use the parameter Tmembername where membername is the member you wish to select Options Set by Parameters after COPY The Command Processor 59 For example to transfer the data from the member part4 of the SAS Transport file indata xpt to the Gauss file outdata dat type copy indata xpt outdata dat tpart4 Wildcard Operators The wildcard operators and allow you to move more than one member of a SAS Transport file with a single command The wildcard operators are used for SAS members in the same way that they are used for worksheet pages as discussed above Options for Variables Automatic Optimizing of Output Variable Type Stat Transfer attempts to produce the smallest possible output data set After reading your data Stat Transfer will by default make an optimization pass during the transfer to determine more infor mation about each variable and then will assign target output types See Target Output Variable Types Page 21 for a discussion of output types used by Stat Transfer The optimization pass will be performed if the file contains any st
35. entered in the dialog boxes and it translates all of the options that you have specified in the Options dialog box into their equivalent command processor settings This enables you to reproduce your transfer operation either from the Run Program dialog box of the user interface or as a batch job from your operating system It also allows you to precisely document how your transfer was performed The program can be viewed or edited in the Run Program dialog box Instead of pressing the Save Program button you can set an option to activate automatic program generation To have a program saved automatically for every transfer click on the Options tab and then select Stat Transfer Program Generation By default automatic program generation is turned off By default the program will be saved in the same directory as the output file and will have the same name as the output file but will have the extension stcmd You can change these defaults in the Save As dialog box Transfer Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 17 Automatic Logging Stat Transfer always writes a log that is displayed in the Log dialog box You can view it and if you would like manually save it to disk However you can tell Stat Transfer to automatically write a log file to disk every time you do a data transfer The log file will contain detailed information about what has occurred your transfer To turn on this feature check the option Automatically write a log fi
36. ferred and to change any output types you wish The resulting file should still have one line for each variable that you wish to transfer Note that the only checking done at the time the TYPES command is given after a COPY command is for the existence of the file Thus editing needs to be done with care 66 The Command Processor Changing Output Variable Types Changing Target Output Types Valid types are string byte int long float double date time and date time see Target Output Vari able Types Page 21 You should be careful not to choose a smaller type than that chosen by Stat Transfer unless you are sure you know more about your data than Stat Transfer does Output variable types can be changed freely for ASCII files and worksheet files For all other file formats you can change freely among the numeric types of byte integer long float and dou ble and you can change among the time types However do not make changes such as string to number or number or string to date Remember that you are selecting a target type If the output data format does not support the spe cific type you have selected then Stat Transfer will use the best match to the type you have selected You can determine the output variable types supported by a given output file type by consulting the appropriate table in the Supported Programs section Changing Output Variable Types The Command Processor 67
37. file name Thus you may need to give commands which define the data source name the table name and sometimes a password or database name The DBR and DBW Commands Stat Transfer has two commands specifically for ODBC data sources DBR short for database read DBW short for database write These commands must precede the COPY command Each of these commands is followed by a single parameter that gives necessary information for the ODBC data source The parameter consists of the parameter name followed by a value for that parameter DBR DBW parametername value The parameter names are DATASOURCE the name of the ODBC data source DATABASE the name of the database PASSWORD logon password for the data source TABLE the name of the table you want to read or write SERVER the name of the machine the database is running on SQL a sql statement to retrieve specific fields and or join tables CONNSTR an ODBC connection string explained below The parameter CONNSTR is the most useful of these in command files Which parameter is necessary for a particular database depends on the database and on the driver You must enter as many DBR and DBW commands as necessary to supply all of the parameters For example if you want to read from the employee table of a SQL Server database you could specify the table with the following command dbr table employee You could then submit a COPY command copy ODBC out sd2 to copy the table
38. files are in general not designed to hold statistical data only worksheets in certain formats can be read Worksheets must be in worksheet database format or in certain modifications of this It is most straightforward with worksheets in database format Database format Worksheet database files are structured worksheets where each row is a single case and each column contains a variable Data can consist of numbers including serial date numbers labels or formulas The first non blank row of a worksheet database file usually has labels in each column that give the names of the variables The data then begins in the next row However variable labels may be in dif ferent rows or not present at all You have several options to specify what part of an input worksheet to read and how to read variable names Data Range You can choose different ranges to be read in input worksheets by using the drop down menu for Data Range in the Worksheets section of the Options dialog box or using the SET command WKS DATA RANGE If you use Autosense the default Stat Transfer will read to the first non blank cell and use that as the upper left corner of the data range It will then read data until it encounters an entirely blank line This is the default behavior You can change the behavior with respect to blank rows by using the Blank Rows option Rather than have Stat Transfer automatically sense the number of rows to be read you can use the other
39. get a list of members in the Transport file You can then check the member that contains the formats that are appropriate for your data Continue if the format file is not found If Stat Transfer is told to look for a user defined format file of some type and the file containing the labels is not found when a transfer is initiated by default the transfer will stop and an error message will be generated If the box Continue if the format file is not found is checked processing will continue in spite of the error Value labels will not be written to the output file Continue if there is an error processing formats This will instruct Stat Transfer to continue processing if there is an error reading the format file or if no matching formats are found in the file Writing SAS Value Labels Write a PROC FORMAT program Stat Transfer can optionally write a PROC FORMAT program that you can use to import value labels from other systems into SAS To turn on this option check the Write a Proc Format Program box The program file will by default be written to the same directory as your output data file with the same name as your output file but with the extension sas You can change this default in the File name edit box You can type in a complete file specification or you can use the macros below as part of the file specification Options Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 39 opath The path including the directory of the outpu
40. is none For example to transfer the S PLUS file indata to a Matlab file outdata mat type copy indata outdata mat The period tells Stat Transfer that indata is a file name not a file type tag Specifying ODBC Data Sources Note that for ODBC the file name is not relevant You simply use the file type tag odbc to repre sent the file name copy odbc outfile sd2 See the section ODBC Data Sources Page 117 for more information Input Worksheets Access Data Sources and SAS Transport Files You can select worksheet pages Access data source tables and members of SAS transport files by us ing parameters that follow the COPY command See Options for Pages and Tables Page 58 Specifving the File Type The Command Processor 57 Options Set by Parameters after COPY Several options are set with parameters of the form xi These are given after the COPY command and can be given in any order COPY infilename ex1 outfilename ex2 xl x2 They can also be used at the operating system prompt ST infilename exI outfilename ex2 xl x2 Note that parameters can be entered in either upper or lower case Options for Pages and Tables Database Tables Tables from or to databases such as Access must be specified on the command line with a parameter that follows the COPY command Ttablename For example copy dept mdb out dta tsales will move the sales table to the file out dta Special Consideratio
41. multiple tables that are joined in an Access view Access has a single date type Date Time which is used to store date time and date time values The format of the column determines how these are displayed There is no straightforward way out side of Access to determine how a column is formatted Stat Transfer reads the first ten cases of the file to determine if each Date Time column contains date data time data or both This information is used to set the type Variable labels are now transferred when reading Access tables Writing Microsoft Access Databases On output tables can be created in a new file new tables can be created in an existing file or existing tables can be overwritten with a new table In addition new data can be now appended to an existing database table This option is off by default and must be turned on by using the Append to Access and ODBC Tables option in the ODBC Access Options of the Options dialog box or the SET command DB TABLE APPEND in the command processor Stat Transfer will match as many variables as possible to those already in the table and add your data to the matching columns Obviously at least one column must match exactly and in addition the ta ble must be free of constraints such as those requiring unique keys that would prohibit a simple ap pend operation When writing time or date data to Access there is no way for Stat Transfer to set the format Becaus
42. not have a standard extension you must precede the file name by a file type tag which indicates the file type For example if you want to write a Windows SAS file that has a dat extension instead of an sas7bdat extension you can type copy indata xls sas outdata dat where the file type tag sas indicates that the output file is to be a SAS Windows file while the stan dard extension x s identifies the input file as an Excel worksheet Specifving the File Type The Command Processor 55 Standard extensions and file type tags used by the Command Processor File Type Standard File Type Default Extensiont Tag 1 2 3 wk 123 Access mdb access ASCII Delimited txt csv delim ASCII Delimited with Schema stsd Schema file stdelim ASCII Fixed with Schema sts Schema file stfixed dBASE and compatibles dbf xbase Epi Info rec epi Excel 2007 xlsx excelx Excel 97 xls excel ki Excel Version 2 xls excel2 FoxPro dbf xbase Gauss 96 dat gauss96 HTML html html JMP Version jmp jmp Please see the discussion of JMP in the Supported Files section LIMDEP Ipj Ipj Matlab 7 mat matlab7 mre Matlab mat matlab Mineset schema sch mineset Minitab mtw minitab NLOGIT Ipj nlogit ODBC none odbc OSIRIS dict det Osiris Paradox db paradox Quattro Pro wq wb quattro R rdata r SAS V6 for Windows and OS 2 sd2 sas2 SAS V6 for Mac Unix HP Sun IBM ssd01 sasl SAS V7 and V8 sas7bdat sas SAS V9 sas7bdat sas9 ne SA
43. of weekday b abbreviated name of month B full name of month d day of the month 1 31 D day of the year 1 366 H hour 24 hour clock 0 23 l hour 12 hour clock 1 12 m month as number 1 12 M minutes 0 59 N milliseconds 0 999 1N tenths of seconds 0 10 2N hundredths of seconds 0 99 p am or pm S seconds 0 59 y year as two digits Y year as four digits character The default formats for converting dates and times to strings are TDate sm Sd SY 5 18 1945 Time S0H 0M 0S 14 05 48 Date ime sm Sda sY 0H 0M 0S 10 1 1990 02 20 09 Encoding Options Introduction to Character Encoding In the early days of computing characters and numbers were represented by seven and sometimes fewer bits The most popular of these encodings ASCH allowed the representation of upper and lower case letters numbers and various symbols Later different eight bit relatives of ASCII were developed which allowed the encoding of an additional 128 characters such as accented letters and various other symbols For languages such as Japanese which required many more characters other multi byte character sets were developed This resulted in different incompatible character encoding systems even for the encoding of a single language s character set Fortunately order is now being restored to this babel with the proliferation of Unicode a means of uniformly representing t
44. options for Data Range to specify a range either by giving a named range or by giving explicit coordinates When a range has been specified Stat Transfer s treatment of entirely blank rows will also be over ridden They will be returned in your output data and in addition blank rows at the end of the worksheet through the last row of the specified range will also be returned Determining Variable Names By default Stat Transfer will attempt to determine whether or not the data in the first non blank row or the first row of a specified range are variable names or the first row of data It does so by look ing for at least one column in which there is a string in the first row and a number in the second If this behavior is inappropriate for your worksheet for example if you have only string data you can specify different options in the Field Name Row drop down menu of the Worksheets section of 82 Supported Programs 1 2 3 Worksheet Files Options dialog box You can specify that variable names must be taken from the first non blank row that they be taken from a specific row or that the worksheet does not contain variable names so that Stat Transfer should assign them coll through coln Determining the Data Types and Widths After identifying the label row Stat Transfer will look if necessary at the entire column to find the first non blank cell in order to determine the data type of each column If the first non
45. output file This option is appropriate if your worksheet contains many sheets that are identical in structure These can be then be combined into a single output file of any type For example you may have a workbook that has 50 sheets with one sheet for each state and the same variables on each sheet If you check this box Stat Transfer will effectively combine the sheets into one large input file dropping the field names if necessary on the second and higher sheets You will end up with the data from all of your worksheet pages in a single output file Writing 1 2 3 Worksheet Files On output by default Stat Transfer will write variable labels in the first row of the worksheet Data values will be placed in the second and succeeding rows You can change this behavior in the Worksheets options in the Options dialog box Column widths and formats will be determined by the variable information available Dates and character variables are straightforward For numerical data information on the width and number of decimal places of variables where available is used to set the column widths and formats Missing Data On input blank cells and cells containing labels consisting of a single dot are read as missing If there is a string in your worksheet such as NA that you would like to have treated as a numeric missing value you can specify it using the Numeric Missing Value option in the Worksheets sec tion of the Options dialog bo
46. run the installation program again and add them Installing Stat Transfer on OS X System requirements e Apple Mac OS X 10 4 Tiger or 10 5 Leopard e Intel or Power PC processor e Memory 512MB RAM e 20 MB of free disk space e Atleasta 1024 768 display Installation To install Stat Transfer place the Stat Transfer CD ROM in your drive Go to your CD ROM drive and select the program file st_installer from the disk To install Stat Transfer in its default location which is the Applications folder you will need to be logged on to an account with administrative privileges Otherwise you will need to install it in a per sonal Applications folder Installation 5 The default installation location is Applications Stattransfer10 If you wish to install the program in a folder with a different name you can do so by clicking on Browse and then entering the drive and directory By default the installation program will install not only the base Stat Transfer application but also the components that are necessary to support ODBC If you decide not to install these components you can run the installation program and add them later Installing Stat Transfer on Linux Software Requirements Any Linux distribution that meets the following requirements e 32 or 64 bit e Kernel 2 6 or higher e glibc 2 3 3 or higher e gtk 2 6 4 or higher In general the OS requirements will be met by Red Enterprise 4 0 or higher SUSE 9 1 or highe
47. string NA to represent missing values or it may use a period Options Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 35 Enter the string that represents missing values in the input data in the Numeric Missing Value field If you wish to read extended missing values for either delimited or fixed ASCII files use the option below or enter the work extended Convert extended a z missing values If this option is checked the keyword extended will be entered into the Numeric Missing Value field When extended is entered extended missing values a z and in either delim ited or fixed ASCII files will be read from the file Note that reading missing values is case insensi tive that is a and A for example are equivalent These extended missing values will be automatically written to the output file for output formats that support them SAS and Stata String Quote Character This is the character that is used to enclose string fields in the input data set The default character is set as double quotes You can choose the appropriate character for the input data However if string variables are not enclosed by any character you can leave this option set at the default double quote Maximum Number of Lines to Examine Stat Transfer first reads your ASCII data to determine what type of variable is present in each delim ited position By default it will read your entire
48. string variables You select whether you want Stata Standard Edition or SE using the Output File Type drop down menu in the Transfer dialog box Write Matlab Date Time as strings By default Stat Transfer will write dates times or datetime variables into Matlab as numbers Dates are serial date numbers with a base of Jan 1 0000 Times are fractions of the day and date time values are the sum of these two components You will need to use internal Matlab functions to turn these numbers into something readable If you are not planning to do any computations on your dates you can check this option and S tat Transfer will write your date values as formatted strings in your Matlab file Add descriptions to value labels for Statistica 7 files Statistica has in addition to value labels for variables a description field If you check this option the output value labels will be formed from the input value label plus the description if it is available Output Options 2 These options control how Stat Transfer constructs the names in the output section of the Transfer di alog box from the information in the input section Despite the setting of these options you can al ways edit the names that Stat Transfer constructs for you Output table member name rule for spaces This option tells Stat Transfer how to handle spaces in table or SAS member names The default is to translate spaces into underscores You can choose to leave t
49. sur vey items which should be in floats you should press the Optimize button in order to designate inte gers for the right variables and then designate floats and doubles to reflect the appropriate level of measurement for each variable Automatic Dropping of Constants You can tell Stat Transfer to automatically drop variables that are constant or missing for a selected subset of data You select this option by checking the Drop Constants check box in the Variables dialog box and then pressing the Optimize button This feature is useful when the part of a data set selected for transfer contains variables with values that are either constant or missing such as a pregnancy variable when only male subjects are selected or variables in yearly surveys where the same questions do not appear for each year This feature is not likely to be used often but is extremely valuable when it is needed If the data set has a large number of variables it can be exceedingly tedious to select only the meaningful ones manually Use Doubles Option The Use Doubles option tells Stat Transfer whether or not to put variables with fractional parts into double or float on output The default is now to have Stat Transfer use doubles If you do not change the default behavior Stat Transfer will evaluate each variable to see if it can be represented as a float without a loss of information and will put only those variables that require it into a
50. systems stores value labels as custom formats in a separate catalog file Ver sion 9 of Stat Transfer can read SAS user defined formats value labels directly from a Windows SAS catalog file This is by far the simplest option for those who are using Windows SAS In addition Stat Transfer can read SAS formats that are stored in several other formats These may be more convenient if your data are coming from another SAS platform or you simply have no con trol over the way the data are produced and delivered Stat Transfer can read formats from catalogs stored in CPORT libraries Stat Transfer can read formats from an exported catalog produced by SAS using the cntrlout op tion of PROC FORMAT See Creating a File with the PROC FORMAT Statement below The files produced in this way can be stored in e aSAS datafile in any of the data representations supported by Stat Transfer including Windows and all Unix platforms e aSAS dataset in a Windows CPORT library e a Transport file which can be produced by SAS running on any platform including those on IBM mainframes Setting the Appropriate Options with the User Interface You can choose whether and how formats are to be read by using the Reading SAS Value Labels op tions of the Options dialog box See Page 38 Do not read formats Check this option which is the default if no formats will be read Read directly from a catalog file Choose this option if y
51. this option It is unchecked by default 44 The Stat Transfer User Interface Options Dialog Box Filename When this option is selected by default Stat Transfer will write the file to the same directory as your output file and give it the same name as your output file but with a stcmd extension If you would like to change the location or the name you can do so in the Filename edit box Because this will be used for every transfer you should not type in a specific name but you can use a specific directory or recommended use the following macros to specify the file name ipath The path including the drive on Windows of the input data file iname The name without the extension of the input data file opath The path including the drive on Windows of the output data file oname The name without the extension of the output data file You should always use the stcmd extension The default filename is Yxopath o Yooname stcmd Ask Permission before overwriting the program file This option controls automatic program generation If checked the default you will be prompted be fore program files are overwritten Ask Permission before overwriting the output file This option controls the overwrite option that will be written to a generated program both for auto matically generated programs and those generated from the Save Program button on the Transfer dialog box If checked the default when the program is
52. to 25 characters in length Paradox s date format is supported on input Writing Paradox Files Stat Transfer stores numbers into Paradox s integer format if they will fit If not it uses double preci sion representation Paradox s date format is supported on output Missing Data Paradox supports missing values for all data types Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Ouput to Paradox from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte int Short long float double Numeric string Alphanumeric date time date time 120 Supported Programs Paradox Tables Date Time Timestamp Quattro Pro Worksheet Files Stat Transfer will read and write Quattro Pro files Standard Extension wq wb Reading Quattro Worksheet Files Because worksheet files are in general not designed to hold statistical data only worksheets in certain formats can be read Worksheets must be in worksheet database format or in certain modifications of this It is most straightforward with worksheets in database format Database format Worksheet database files are structured worksheets where each row is a single case and each column contains a variable Data can consist of numbers including serial date numbers labels or formulas The first non blank row of a worksheet database file usually has labels in each colum
53. to a SAS file named out sd2 To write to a table data in an ODBC data source you could use the commands dbw table data copy indata sd2 ODBC Retrieving Parameter Values During a Stat Transfer session you can obtain the value of any parameter by entering DBR or DBW and the parameter name without a value DBR DBW parametername If no value has been entered yet you will be told that the value is blank Clearing Parameter Values The DBR and DBW values are persistent across COPY commands during a session Thus you will need to change or clear them if you are executing multiple COPY commands using different data sources ODBC Data Sources The Command Processor 77 You can clear the value of any parameter by entering clear in place of a value For example dbr connstr clear clears the value of the parameter CONNSTR Note that it is necessary to clear parameter values if you want to be re prompted by the ODBC driver manager for any values that you have previously entered Running Batch Jobs with ODBC With SQL Server and other client server databases you are likely to need a password and other pa rameters Fortunately when you connect from the command line the ODBC driver manager will prompt you for whatever information is needed However in order to run a job in an automatic batch mode with a command file you need to supply the necessary information automatically The simplest way to do this is to take advantag
54. to examine and a view ing window will display the string To disable it uncheck the Show Long String Viewer option Options Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 43 Hide Automatically By default the viewing window will close automatically when your cursor leaves the cell that con tains the string you are viewing To turn off this behavior uncheck the Hide Automatically option Long String Viewer Width The value entered here gives the maximum number of characters that will be displayed on a line of the long string viewer If more characters are needed the string will be wrapped in a box of the given width If fewer are needed the size of the viewer window will be adjusted downward to fit Maximum Length Displayed This is the maximum string width that will be displayed in the long string viewer Note that the maxi mum length of a string in Stat Transfer is 32767 characters Variable Info Viewer This is also new in version 10 If you click on the variable name at the top of the grid a Variable Info Viewer box will open up that will show you the variable name its type and if available its label Show Variable Info Viewer The Variable Info Viewer box is on by default You can turn off this feature by unchecking the box Hide Automatically By default the viewing window will close automatically when your cursor leaves the cell that contains the variable you are viewing To turn off this behavior uncheck the Hide Automatically
55. to select the member that contains your formats Read a SAS datafile Choose this option if you wish to read formats from a SAS datafile produced by SAS using PROC FORMAT When this option is checked you must have both the SAS input file and a separate file created by SAS that contains the formats By default Stat Transfer will look in the same directory as the input file for a file named sas_fmts ext where ext is the extension of your input file This is the name that the file will have if you have created it by the procedure below If you wish to have Stat Transfer look for a file located somewhere else or with a different name you can change it in the SAS dataset name box You can type in a complete file specification or you can use the macros given above as part of the file specification Read from a dataset in a CPORT library Choose this option if you have your formats in a dataset in a CPORT library produced by PROC FORMAT If this option is checked the entry ipath iname ste will automatically appear on the CPORT library name line This instructs Stat Transfer to look for a file with the name with extension stc and directory of your input file since you will most probably be reading your formats from the same file as the data If you are reading formats and data from separate files then you can give the name of the file on this line You can type in a complete file specification or you can use the macros above as
56. to the screen The text HEADER RE CORD 7 TRBRARY HEADER RECORD should appear at the beginning of the file If it does not it is not a transport file You should refer to the Stat Transfer manual or to SAS documenta tion to find out how to create a Transport file in SAS S PLUS Files Q Stat Transfer will not read my S PLUS file What is wrong A Remember some S PLUS file have very little structure and parts of the data are only meaningful to S PLUS Make sure that your data are in the form of a two dimensional matrix a list or a dataframe Stata Files Q Why do all of my labels and variable names come out in lower case when I transfer a file to Stata A That s not a bug it s a feature We respect the style of the package to which we are transfer ring and packages such as S Plus and Stata favor lower case letters If you would like to maintain the case of your variable names and labels check the Variable Name Case Conversion options under General Options in the Options dialog box Worksheet Files Q Ihave some blank rows in my worksheet Stat Transfer stops reading the data as soon as it encounters a blank row Is there any way to work around this A The reason Stat Transfer behaves that way is that sometimes users like to put comments or notes at the bottom of their data block If they put at least one blank line between the data and the com ments then by default Stat Transfer will read their data
57. up file They cannot be used when running interactively from the operating system prompt If no commands for selecting cases or variables are given then by default all of the variables and cases will be transferred For example to copy all of the variables and all of the cases from an Excel file indata xls to a SAS file outdata sas 7bdat type copy indata xls outdata sd2 where the file type is given by using standard extensions Instead of entering commands directly you can store them in a command file and execute that file at the Stat Transfer prompt See Page 75 Wildcard Transfers Wildcards can be used to copy multiple files in one transfer For example copy in dta out sas7bdat will convert all of the Stata files in the directory in to SAS files in the directory out Standard wildcards work in the input file and The output filename should always be speci fied with an asterisk and will be consist of the input filename with the new extension We recommend that you use wildcard specifications with an input directory that contains just the files you wish to transfer To avoid the possibility of overwriting existing files or of being prompted about this possibility the directory should be empty on the output side You may also specify the y pa rameter to suppress prompting but you should do so with extreme caution 52 The Command Processor The Copy Command Transfers from the Operating S
58. you may want to create an output file for a program that expects a specific missing value such as a period for SAS If you want to write a string other than the default blank to represent missing values in the output data set then enter that string in the Numeric Missing Value field 36 The Stat Transfer User Interface Options Dialog Box If you wish to write extended missing values for either delimited or fixed ASCII files use the option below or enter the word extended Write extended a z missing values If this option is checked the keyword extended will be entered into the Numeric Missing Value 2 9 field When extended is entered extended missing values a z and in either delim ited or fixed ASCII files will be written to either delimited or fixed format ASCII files Line Endings The line endings of ASCII files for Windows differ from those for Unix or OS X Windows files have a carriage return and a line feed at the end of each line while Unix and Mac files have only a line feed If you wish to write an output file for use on a Unix machine or a Mac then you must tell Stat Transfer to write the correct kind of line ending The default is Windows To write Unix and Mac files select Unix amp OS X from the drop down menu Write variable names in first row The option Write Variable Names in First Row is on by default If you turn it off field names will n
59. 2009 16 37 23 Input format SPSS Data File 06 08 2009 16 37 23 All Variables 49 total have been automatically selected 06 08 2009 16 42 17 06 08 2009 16 42 17 Transfer started at August 6 2009 at 4 42 PM 06 08 2009 16 42 17 Stat Transfer Version 10 1 1486 0804 06 08 2009 16 42 17 Transferring from SPSS Data File 06 08 2009 16 42 17 File specification D stp gss sav 06 08 2009 16 42 17 Transferring to Stata SE Version 11 06 08 2009 16 42 17 File specification D stp gss dta 06 08 2009 16 42 17 Optimizing Target Types 06 08 2009 16 42 18 The file D stp gss dta exists Is it ok to overwrite it y n y 06 08 2009 16 42 18 Finished 745 cases and 49 variables were transferred 0 03 seconds 06 08 2009 16 42 18 Transfer ended at 4 42 PM gt f Log Level r Save LogFile Critical errors only Send Error report C Information and errors Name fcopath oname stlag Save Clear Help C Verbose This feature gives information on what is occurring during a transfer and allows better technical support When you carry out a transfer with the user interface Stat Transfer will write status progress and er ror messages which can be read as the transfer progresses and can be saved to a file In case of errors or problems this file can be sent to Circle Systems technical support Stat Transfer Log The log messages for a single session of Stat Transfer will appear in the Sta
60. 80 25 47 48 17 126 127 149 42 71 126 13 59 38 70 15 126 133 134 128 131 70 38 39 SAS ASCII input for Schema files options Second computer installing Seed for sampling functions Selecting cases command processor user interface Selecting variables command processor user interface Selection conditions examples wildcards in SET commands Show messages S PLUS files case conversion factors options set byte order specifying command processor troubleshooting SPSS case conversions names in older versions set byte order user missing values SPSS data files SPSS Export files SPSS Portable Files SPSS ASCII input for Standard extensions command processor Starting Stat Transfer Startup options file Stat Transfer web updates Stata files case conversions names in older versions troubleshooting write older version Stata output Stata ASCII input for Stata long variable labels Statistica files Statistica option Stopping a transfer string target type Suppress messages SYSTAT Files T Tables Access and ODBC append Access and ODBC output 89 93 37 7 29 63 24 64 65 19 25 25 26 68 72 62 135 136 29 41 71 41 71 69 72 57 150 29 37 69 72 30 137 138 139 140 139 140 89 12 55 10 68 8 141 142 29 37 150 42 71 15 89 3 143 42 17 21 61 144 69 16 58 Access and ODBC selecting Access and ODBC specifying Access appending ODBC appen
61. 9 SAS Data Files 149 SAS Transport Files 150 S PLUS Files 150 Stata Files 150 Worksheet Files 150 Introduction What Stat Transfer Does Stat Transfer is designed to simplify the transfer of statistical data between different programs Data generated by one program is often needed in another context either for analysis for cleaning and correction or for presentation However not only must the data be transferred but in addition the variables generally must be re described for each program with additional information such as variable names missing values and value and variable labels This process is not only time consum ing it is error prone For those in possession of data sets with many variables it represents a serious impediment to the use of more than one program Stat Transfer removes this barrier by providing an extremely fast reliable and automatic way to move data Stat Transfer will automatically read statistical data in the internal format of one of the supported pro grams and will then transfer as much of the information as is present and appropriate to the internal format of another Stat Transfer preserves all of the precision in your data by storing it internally in double precision for mat However on output it will where possible automatically minimize the size of your output data set by intelligently choosing data storage types that are only as large as necessary to preserve the in put precision
62. BASE files Default output file specification Default output variable types Delimited ASCII files Delimited ASCII output Delimiters in ASCII files 13 41 70 23 61 52 53 14 43 103 21 21 31 69 32 69 80 100 101 16 20 87 88 15 87 35 Demo files Demo version of Stat Transfer Directories changing command processor user interface double target type Doubles option command processor DROP command using file DROP KEEP command options Dropping constants E Encoding options Epi Info files Error report sending Examples case selection expressions demo files Schema file Excel worksheets troubleshooting Extended missing values ASCII map to SAS Stata Extensions command files standard startup options file F Factors R File format selecting input selecting output with command processor File history length File lists command processor File name extensions command files standard startup options file File specification command processor input file output file File type tags Fixed format ASCII files Fixed format ASCII output float target type Floats option 73 16 21 4 23 29 60 64 64 64 72 23 61 33 69 102 50 25 8 99 103 105 150 36 37 88 91 30 127 132 134 141 75 12 95 68 41 71 11 55 43 73 75 12 55 68 55 16 55 89 15 21 60 Font data viewer user interface Formats new FoxPro files Frequently asked questions G
63. Gauss files General options Generated programs command files for ASCII output Help activating software command processor for old friends online technical support HTML tables j Input data file options in command processor selecting Input data viewer Input file format selecting Input widths preserve Installing on Linux Installing on OS X Installing on second computer Installing on Windows int target type Internal limitations Internal storage of numbers Internal variable in WHERE International character sets J JMP files JMP options K KEEP command option for multiple sessions using file L LIMDEP files Limitations changing output variable types internal 44 43 106 146 107 28 17 15 37 89 58 11 52 14 11 55 37 6 5 7 5 21 79 20 25 3 13 33 109 110 41 71 64 64 111 23 79 Log dialog box Logging options Logging command processor long target type Long string viewer options Lotus 1 2 3 worksheet files troubleshooting M Matlab files Matlab option Member names SAS Transport files Members SAS CPORT files Members SAS Transport files Messages command processor Log dialog box log options logging command processor options in command processor overwrite file warning Microsoft Access files Mineset files Minitab worksheets Missing values _ missing variable ASCII map to extended R Version One testing for user worksheets Mixed data
64. It begins in the first column When reading fixed format data the FORMAT command if present is followed by fixed This command is never required for fixed format files but you may wish to use it for documantation pur poses When reading delimited data the FORMAT command is followed by delimited which is then fol lowed by the delimiter The delimiter can be commas tabs spaces or semicolons or you can specify any other delimiter character by preceding it with a For instance to use the pipe character for a delimiter type format delimited To use commas type format delimited commas FIRST LINE Command If you need to skip lines at the beginning of your data file use this command which starts in the first column After the command enter the number of the first line to be read For example to start on the third line of your file type first line 3 94 Supported Programs SCHEMA Files for ASCII Input VARIABLES Command The VARIABLES command must be used It begins in the first column Record Specifiers If you have more than one record for each logical case you must indicate the start of each record af ter the first by a slash For example if each case is on two records then the VARIABLES command would have the following form VARIABLES variable specifications for record one variable specifications for record two where signifies the start of the sec
65. MP is a general statistics package from the SAS institute that runs on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms Stat Transfer reads and writes files that are usable on either platform Versions 3 8 are supported Standard Extension mat Reading JMP Files JMP allows and encourages variable names of up to 31 characters These variable names can con tain embedded blanks and any other character These names may be truncated or altered when they are transferred to other statistical packages Because of this Stat Transfer will use the JMP variable name for a variable label if it is greater than eight characters and contains an embedded blank or if you have checked the option Write New Numeric Variable Names in the General Options section of the Options dialog box By default the notes property for a variable will be used as a variable label if present If you have additional textual data in the custom propeties of your variables you can append this to the variable labels by checking the option Use custom properties as variable labels in the JMP Options section of the Options dialog box Reading JMP files with the Command Processor It is necessary to use a file type tag to distinguish different versions of JMP files when reading them with the command processor Version 4 files are read by default That is if the input is a Version 4 JMP file that has the standard extension jmp no file type tag is needed If you want to rea
66. O x Transfer Variables Observations Options Run Program Log About Available Options General Options m General Options UserMissing Values Date Time Formats Reading Date Time Formats Writing I Write new numeric variable names Vn Encoding Options ODBC Access Options ASCII Text File Read Use doubles ASCIl Text File Write SAS Value Labels Reading SAS Value Labels Writing Seed for sampling functions Juo s sSOCS M Ask permissions before overwriting files M Preserve value label tags and sets Worksheets JMP Options i Variable name case conversions R and SPLUS Options Output Options 1 For case insensitive programs Convertto lower gt Output Options 2 See User Interface Options Data Viewer Options For case sensitive programs Convertta lower Stat Transfer Program Generation Automatic Transfer Lagging Save Help 49 variables selected Restore Default Restore Saved General Options Ask Permission before Overwriting Files The option Ask Permission Before Overwriting Files is on by default If a file or a database table exists you will be prompted for permission before it is overwritten If you wish to suppress these warning messages click on the box to remove the check mark Write New Numeric Variable Names Vn When you go from one format to another by default Stat T
67. OPIES FROM YOUR COMPUTER AND RETURN THE SOFTWARE AND ANY ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS WITHIN 30 DAYS OF PURCHASE WITH PROOF OF PURCHASE FOR A FULL REFUND OF THE AMOUNT YOU ORIGINALLY PAID FOR THE SOFTWARE SOFTWARE LICENSE Circle Systems grants you the right to load and use one copy of the software on a single computer your Dedicated Computer You may transfer the software to another single Dedicated Computer provided you remove all copies of the software from the first computer when you install it on the other computer If one individual uses the Dedicated Computer more than 80 of the time that it is in use then that individual may also load and use the software on that individual s portable or home computer You may also make a copy of the software for backup or archival purposes If you receive a copy of the software electronically and on disk you may use the disk copy for archival purposes only Copyright and other intellectual property laws and international treaty protect this software Copyright law prohibits you from making any other copy of the software and user manual without the permission of Circle Systems You may not alter modify or adapt the software or user manual or create any derivative works based on them Circle Systems distributes the software in computer executable form only and does not allow user access to the underlying source code and data You may not reverse engineer decompile or disassemble the software to gain a
68. Options tab and then clicking on User Interface Options You can choose to have the value labels displayed in a vertical box just to the right of the variable names or in a horizontal box below the the variable names The default is to display the value labels in a horizontal box Output Variable Types Since different output formats use different variable types Stat Transfer will either automatically choose output types or allow you to set the output types manually Target Output Variable Types Systems differ widely in the number and variety of variable types they support When data are trans ferred from one file type to another a variable type in the output format must be assigned to each of the variables being transferred Note that with Stat Transfer numerical precision is never lost in the transfer process since all numer ical variables are stored internally as double precision floating point numbers and are then written out according to the assigned variable type Stat Transfer automatically reads your dataset an extra time in order to determine the optimum output types for each variable and the maximum length of string variables In almost all cases it is appropri ate to accept the output types that Stat Transfer chooses However there are times that you may wish to override these defaults and set the output types manually Target Types Assigned by Stat Transfer When assigning default output variable types Stat Transfer att
69. S CPORT stc cport SAS Transport Files tpt xpt sasx S PLUS 5 splus xx S PLUS for HP IBM Sun Unix splus hl SPSS Data Files sav spss ae SPSS Data for HP Sun Unix IBM sav spss hl SPSS Portable Files por spssp SPSS Program and ASCII data sps spss dat Stata Standard dta stata ne Stata SE dta stata se Stata Program and ASCII Data do stata dat Statistica Version 5 and 6 sta statistica ne Statistica Version 7 sta statistica7 SYSTAT sys systat Triple S xml SSS Distinguishing Between File Names and File type Tags The command processor uses the presence of a period to differentiate between extensions and file type tags Therefore when using the COPY command you must either use a period in your file name or if the name does not contain a period then you must use one after the file name 56 The Command Processor Specifying the File Type For example if you have a Stata file named populat and you are going to a 1 2 3 file populat wk3 the COPY command would look like copy stata populat populate wk3 The file type tag must be used since the input file does not have a standard extension The period af ter the file name tells Stat Transfer that this is the file name Special Cases when Specifying Files Specifying S PLUS Files A period must always be added to standard S PLUS file names since these do not have any exten sion No file type tag is needed however since the standard extension for S PLUS files
70. See Page 38 to set options However in all other cases the catalog file is not read directly Value labels must therefore be trans ferred to the data file according to the procedure on Page 128 Writing SAS Data Files On output Stat Transfer will write files for all SAS platforms except for VAX VMS and IBM MVS When you select SAS as the output type you now have an option to control the data representation of the output SAS data set The possible data representations correspond to sixteen of the values for OUTREP in the SAS system The SAS data representation that will be used for the output file will appear next to the Output File Type box If this is not the data representation that you wish to write go the SAS Data Representa tion option in the Output Options 1 section of the Options dialog box and make the appropriate se lection from the drop down list 126 Supported Programs SAS Data Files When writing SAS data files you should pick an output format that is appropriate for the version of SAS that will be reading the file Value labels can be transferred according to the procedure on Page 128 Missing Data SAS supports the missing values A Z and Input On input when a SAS file is transferred to a Stata file or an ASCII file with extended missing values specified the SAS input missing values will be transferred to the equivalent ones in the output file For all other output formats a
71. Standard Extension dta Reading Stata Files Stat Transfer can read data from any version of Stata Character variables and dates are fully sup ported Variable and value labels are transferred out of Stata Writing Stata Files Versions of Stata higher than Version 7 come in two flavors Standard or intercooled Stata and Stata SE or Special Edition These differ in their limits for the number of output variables and the maximum permitted length of string variables You can choose the flavor of the Stata output file from the list given in the Output File Type box in the Transfer dialog box You use the option Stata Version in the Output Options 1 section of the Options dialog box to choose the version of the Stata files written by Stat Transfer The default is Stata Version 10 Version 10 and version 11 have identical file formats Change this option if a earlier version will be used to read the file Stata holds the entire data set in memory Stat Transfer will therefore attempt to conserve as much space as is possible It will in general transfer variables into single precision floating point format However when Stat Transfer is transferring from a format in which the width and number of decimal places are known such as SPSS dBASE and worksheet formats or when it is optimizing the output variables the default it will use the available information to minimize the size of your Stata data set You can of course
72. Stat Transter File Transfer Utility ata Version 10 instantly usable Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Circle Systems Inc The Stat Transfer program is licensed for use on a single computer system or network node Use by multiple users on more than one computer is prohibited If in doubt please call and ask about our very economical site licenses Stat Transfer is a trademark of Circle Systems Inc This manual refers to numerous products by their trade names In most if not all cases these designations are claimed as trademarks or registered trademarks by their respec tive companies CIRCLE SYSTEMS SINGLE USER LICENSE AGREEMENT AND LIMITED WARRANTY FOR STAT TRANSFER IMPORTANT READ CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING THE STAT TRANSFER SOFTWARE By clicking the Next button opening the sealed packet s containing the software or using any portion of the software you accept all of the following Circle Systems License Agreement THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN CIRCLE SYSTEMS INC AND YOU THE END USER CAREFULLY READ THIS AGREEMENT BEFORE OPENING INSTALLING OR USING THE STAT TRANSFER SOFTWARE the software CIRCLE SYSTEMS WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY PURCHASE ORDER OR SELL YOU A LICENSE TO INSTALL AND USE THE SOFTWARE UNLESS YOU AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS DO NOT OPEN THE DISK PACKAGE OR INSTALL OR USE THE SOFTWARE ON YOUR COMPUTER REMOVE ALL C
73. Transfer to look in the same direc tory as your data file for a file with the same name as your input file and the extension stc You can change the path if your file is in a different location If the Use default dataset name box is checked Stat Transfer will look in the CPORT file for a data set named sas_fmts If you would like to read your formats from a different data set uncheck the box and then click on the Read Library button to get list of data sets in the CPORT file You can then check the data set that contains the formats that are appropriate for your data Read from a SAS Transport Library tpt This option is appropriate if your formats were written with the cntlout option of PROC FORMAT into a Transport library This is a very good way of transporting formats from an unsupported plat form such as IBM mainframe SAS If this option is selected the entry ipath Yoiname tpt will automatically appear in the Name box below the SAS Value Labels Reading box This instructs Stat Transfer to look for a file with the same name as your input file and the extension tpt in the same directory as your data file You can change the path if your file is in a different location If the box Use default member names is checked Stat Transfer will look in the Transport file for a member named sas_fmts If you would like to read your formats from a different member uncheck the box and then click on the Read Library button to
74. Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table S PLUS Files Supported Programs 135 Output to S PLUS from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Integer int long float Real double Double date Date time Character date time written according to the ASCII format options currently in effect 136 Supported Programs S PLUS Files SPSS Data Files Stat Transfer will read and write SPSS data files from the following platforms Macintosh Windows and OS 2 Unix HP Sun IBM Standard Extension sav Reading and Writing SPSS Data Files Long variable names used in Version 12 and above are supported Long strings used in Version 13 are read and written Reading SPSS Data Files Stat Transfer automatically recognizes a file s platform of origin on input Stat Transfer will read both compressed or uncompressed SPSS data files Writing SPSS Data Files On output Stat Transfer allows you to choose a file type for Windows and OS2 or a Unix file type ei ther for the general group of HIGH LOW Sun HP and IBM or LOW HIGH byte order machines DEC Stat Transfer always writes compressed files which on typical survey data are notably smaller Value and variable labels are fully supported Missing Data SPSS allows for three numeric missing values By default these are recognized by Stat Transfer The defau
75. a Tab Delimiter for reading ASCII files Other is any character Space Semicolon Other such as COMBINE DELIMITERS Off Spaces only Combine adjacent delimiters when reading space Spaces amp Tabs delimited files ASCH RD VNAMES Autosense First row Field names when reading ASCII files Make up NUM MISS RD Missing value characters Numeric missing value when reading ASCII files Extended None QUOTE CHAR RD Character None Quote character used Defaults to MAX LINES Number All Maximum ASCII lines to examine for variable type DECIMAL POINT Character Decimal point for reading ASCH files defaults to THOUSANDS SEP Character Thousands separator defaults to ASCII Options Write DELIMITER WR Comma Tab Space Delimiter for writing ASCII files Other is any character Semicolon Other such as QUOTE CHAR WR Character None Quote character used defaults to Setting Options with the SET Command The Command Processor 69 NUM MISS WR Missing value characters Numeric missing value when writing ASCII files Extended None SET LINE END Win Unix Line endings for either Windows or Unix files WRITE FIELD NAMES Y N Write field names to ASCII files CODE OMIT PATHS Y N Omit paths from generated program files PROG PRESERVE WIDTHS Y N SAS Value Labels Reading READ SAS FMTS Y N READ FMT NAME Filespec UDF CAT MEMBER catalogname UDF DAT MEMBER datasetname CAT ABSENCE OK Y N CAT
76. able float double string Label date Serial date number with date format time Time fraction with date format if available date time Date number time fraction with date time format if available Excel Worksheets Supported Programs 105 FoxPro Files Stat Transfer will read and write FoxPro files Standard Extension dbf Reading FoxPro Files FoxPro files can have indices for key fields which are stored in separate files Stat Transfer ignores these indices and treats all files sequentially On input FoxPro numeric data and character variables are converted in a straightforward manner Logical variables are converted to numbers True becomes 1 False becomes 0 Memo Fields cannot be converted and will not appear on the variable selection menu Deleted records are not transferred Writing Fox Pro Files Users should be aware that FoxPro files are limited to 128 variables FoxPro stores numeric data in fixed length character format It is thus not very suitable for numbers which vary widely in magnitude or which are either very large or very small When Stat Transfer is transferring data from a system in which the width and number of decimal places are known it uses that information to set the format of each field in the output FoxPro files For systems such as SYSTAT in which this information is not recorded in the file Stat Transfer uses sets the formats based on the target t
77. ach of these questions 28 The Stat Transfer User Interface Options Dialog Box If the option Preserve value label tags and sets is checked the mapping of value label sets to multi ple variables will be preserved on output If tags are used in the input file to identify value labels sets these will be preserved Otherwise tags will be constructed by Stat Transfer LABA LABZ and so on If this option is not checked each labeled variable will have a unique value label set and the tag used to identify the set will be constructed from the name of the variable This option is off by default Use Doubles The Use Doubles box can be checked here if you want Stat Transfer to use doubles when it optimizes your output data set By default this option is on Uncheck the Use Doubles option if you need to minimize the size of your output dataset particularly for Stata and you know that the precision of measurement of all of your variables is less than eight decimal digits Seed for Sampling Functions By default the sampling functions in WHERE expressions will generate a starting seed randomly based on the clock time This means that each time you run a transfer on a given file you will select a different sample If in contrast you need a reproducible sample you can enter a seed for the random sampling process The seed should be a positive integer in the range of 1 through 2 147 483 646 Variable name case conversions Stat Transfer alwa
78. ading SYSTAT Files When Stat Transfer reads SYSTAT data sets it processes the variable names by 1 dropping the dollar signs on character variables and 2 removing the parentheses before and after subscripts For exam ple SCALE 1 becomes SCALE1 Writing SYSTAT Files Any variable name in the source data set which contains a left parentheses followed by a number will be transferred into a SYSTAT subscripted variable Users should note that the SYSTAT error message You are trying to read an empty file will occur when SYSTAT cannot find a data file Your SYSTAT files should be in the default drive or directory Missing Data SYSTAT supports missing values Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to SYSTAT from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Number int long float double string Character date Date time Character date time written according to the ASCII format options currently in effect 144 Supported Programs SYSTAT Files Triple S Triple S is an open standard for the transfer of survey data and its meta data between software packages For information on the standard and on other packages that support Triple S see www triple s org Stat Transfer supports Triple S XML Version 2 The data are contained in two files The dictionary information is stored in a file with the extension xml and
79. after the starting column location variablename begcol fwidth n If a decimal point is present in the input number it is read and used Ifa decimal place is not found in the data the number will be divided by 10 to the nth power where n is the number of decimal placed given in the format For example income 6 F10 2 SCHEMA Files for ASCH Input Supported Programs 95 will read the variable income beginning in column 6 with a width of 10 If the number found in the field is 2 00 the result will be 2 If the data contain 200 the result will be two as well The input widths whether given explicitly or with a format giving the variable width may be used to specify the output width when writing program files with fixed format ASCII data In order for these widths to be used in the output file you should check the option Preserve Input Widths in the ASCII File Write section of the Options dialog box Variable Lists Ifyou have adjacent variables in a record with the same widths and of the same type you can use a list to specify them in the VARIABLES command The width specified by the given column range is divided by the number of variables in the list to give the width of each variable If the number of variables does not give an integer when divided into the width specified then an error is returned For example incsat housesat 22 23 will describe the numeric variable incsat as having a width of one located in co
80. al Thus if a dBASE file is chosen as input then FoxPro will not appear on the output format list and vice versa Stata Output The two types of Stata files Stata Standard and Stata SE appear in the list of output file formats By default the latest version of each type will be chosen You can change the version to be output by selecting Output Options 1 from the Options tab SAS Output SAS V6 SAS V7 8 and SAS V9 will appear in the list of output files types You can specify the platform you wish for the output by selecting Output Options 1 from the Options tab Delimited ASCII Choices If you wish to write delimited ASCII files you will see two choices in the list of output file types ASCII text Delimited ASCII text Delimited S T Schema These are described in the supported programs section ASCII Files Delimited Fixed Format ASCII Choices If you wish to write fixed format ASCII files you will see several choices in the list of output file types ASCII text Fixed Format S T Schema SAS Program ASCII Data File SPSS Program ASCII Data File Stata Program ASCII Data File These are described in the supported programs section ASCH Files Fixed Format Transfer Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 15 Selecting the Output File Output File Specification The output file name is given on the fourth line of the Transfer dialog box Since Stat Transfer sup plies a default specification for t
81. alled with Stat Transfer for Windows and can be opened by clicking on the Start but ton then pointing to Programs Point to the Stat Transfer folder and when the contents appear click on StatTransfer Manual If you are using Stat Tranfer on other platforms you can download the PDF file from our Web site 8 Resources Online Help The Stat Transfer online help contains all of the information found in the manual You can access the online help by pressing the Help buttons or the buttons on the Stat Transfer dialog boxes Removing Stat Transfer On Windows if you would like to remove Stat Transfer from your hard disk simply select the Uninstall option from the Start menus Stat Transfer folder On OS X select the Uninstall item in the Stattransfer10 folder of your Applications folder On Linux navigate to the Stat Transfer program directory and execute the Uninstall program Technical Support Our Web site can be found at http www stattransfer com You can reach our Web site from the About screen Our general email address should you want reach us about anything other than sup port is sales circlesys com Before you call for support please check the online help or look in the Stat Transfer online manual and see if the solution to your problem can be answered by these aids Be sure to check the Fre quently Asked Questions sections You can also check to see if your problem is addressed in the Support section of our Web s
82. and skip the comments with no special ac tions on their part However if you can change the behavior in one of two ways In the Options dialog box you can ei ther set the Blank Rows option to control reading of blank lines or you can explicitly set a data range by using the Data Range option In the later case Stat Transfer will return all of the rows in the range you specify In other words it assumes that you know what you are doing and will return blank rows if that is what you want 150 Frequently Asked Questions Q When I read my Excel spreadsheet sometimes a whole column of numbers gets transferred as a string variable even though it contains lots of numbers A Stat Transfer examines all of the cells in a column to determine the type If there are any strings the column will be transferred into a string variable and the numbers and dates that are in the column will be converted to their string representation This scheme is in general what people expect partic ularly for columns of mixed numeric and string indentifiers where the alternative strategy would make the strings into missing values If you have a column that you want to force to numeric you can check it to make sure that there are not any strings or numbers formatted with a text format Alternativly you can force a type conver sion by using the controls on the Variables dialog box Q How should I represent missing values in my worksheet A In general y
83. anging Target Output Types 67 Setting Options with the SET Command 68 Available Options 68 Other Available Command Processor Commands 73 Operating System Commands 73 Quit 73 Command Processor Help 74 Logging Stat Transfer Sessions 74 Command Files 75 Constructing Command Files 75 Command File Name Extensions 75 Executing Command Files 75 Running Programs and Commands in Command Files 76 ODBC Data Sources 77 The DBR and DBW Commands 77 Running Batch Jobs with ODBC 78 Variable Naming and Limits 79 Variable Names 79 Limitations on the Number of Variables 79 Strings with Value Labels 79 Internal Limitations 79 Return Transfers to the Original Format 80 Supported Programs 81 1 2 3 Worksheet Files 82 Access 85 ASCII Files Delimited 87 ASCII Files Fixed Format 89 SCHEMA Files for ASCII Input 93 dBASE Files and Compatibles 100 Epi Info 102 Excel Worksheets 103 FoxPro Files 106 Gauss Files 107 HTML Tables 108 JMP Files 109 LIMDEP Files 111 Matlab Files 112 Mineset Files 114 Minitab Worksheets 115 NLOGIT Files 116 ODBC Data Sources 117 OSIRIS Files 119 Paradox Tables 120 Quattro Pro Worksheet Files 121 R 124 SAS Data Files 126 SAS Value Labels 128 SAS CPORT 132 SAS Transport Files 133 S PLUS Files 135 SPSS Data Files 137 SPSS Portable Files 139 Stata Files 141 Statistica Files 143 SYSTAT Files 144 Triple S 145 Frequently Asked Questions 146 General Questions 146 Command Processor 147 Licenses 148 ODBC Data Sources 14
84. anslates all of the options that you have specified in the Options dialog box into their equivalent command processor settings See the section Saving a Stat Transfer Program for details Creating a Program Manually You can manually create Stat Transfer command programs as ASCII documents Commands are en tered into the document just as they would be if you were using the command processor and entering them at the Stat Transfer prompt See the Command Processor section Page 51 for details Run Program Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 47 Running a Program Begin by pressing the Open button and selecting the program you wish to use The program will ap pear in the top window of the screen where it can be viewed and if necessary edited If you make any changes to the program the Save button will become active and a Save as dialog box will al low you to save the program back to disk To run the program click on the Run button Output from the command processor will appear in the Output window If you want to stop a program in mid run click on the Stop button 48 The Stat Transfer User Interface Run Program Dialog Box Log Dialog Box Click on the Log tab and you will see the Stat Transfer Log dialog box gt Stat Transfer Oo x Transfer Variables Observations Options Run Program Log About r StatTransfer Log 06 08 2009 16 37 23 06 08 2009 16 37 23 Reading D stp gss sav 06 08
85. aradox tables Precision numerical Preserving WHERE statements Preview input data Profile stemd file Programs for ASCII output options 149 77 42 71 8 21 60 31 32 69 35 69 36 69 44 23 29 60 58 62 68 72 119 15 55 43 16 55 42 71 20 20 20 22 66 67 23 60 21 60 28 61 58 13 59 120 20 26 14 68 37 Q Quattro Pro worksheet files troubleshooting Quick variable selector Quick variable type changer Quit command R R files R options Ranges specifying for worksheets Read me file Relational operators in WHERE Removing Stat Transfer Reproducible samples Resetting Stat Transfer Restore default options Restore saved options Return transfers _rownum variable Run Program dialog box Running the program S Sample files Sample reproducible Sampling functions random fixed size sample random number generator for random sample systematic sample Sampling seed SAS catalog files SAS CPORT files members value labels SAS data files troubleshooting SAS data representation options SAS file members selecting SAS formats from catalog files SAS output SAS PC DOS 6 04 SAS Transport files member names members input specifying members troubleshooting wildcards to specify members SAS user formats SAS value labels options SAS value labels reading SAS value labels writing 121 123 150 19 22 73 124 125 41 71 40 59 70 4 25 9 27 17 46 46
86. as in SPSS for example they are mapped into a single missing value on output This corresponds to selection of the Use All button The mapping to a missing value on output is determined by the option Map to extended a z missing Use First If you select Use First the first user defined missing value will be mapped to the system missing value and the rest will be transferred intact to the target data set Use First will often be the most useful of the options since it will allow tabulations in the target package of patterns of non response Use None If you choose Use None then all of the user defined missing values will be transferred re taining the input value in the target data set Map to extended a z missing By default when this option is left unchecked all user missing values that are selected according the options for user missing values Use All Use First Use none will go to a single missing value which will then be converted to the system missing value in the target package in SAS or Stata for example If the option Map to extended a z missing is checked user missing values will be mapped if pos sible to extended missing values in target packages that support them SAS ASCII or Stata By de fault this mapping will be done in order with the first missing value going into a the second into b and so on Map using variable labels If the option Map using variable labels is checked the first
87. as serial day number time Time written as fraction of day date time Date time integer gives serial day number fractional part gives time string Not written Matlab Files Supported Programs 113 Mineset Files Mineset is a data visualization package from Silicon Graphics Inc The published and portable data format is tab delimited ASCII stored in a file with a DATA extension and described by a dictionary in a file with a SCHEMA extension Standard extensions schema data Reading Mineset files When using Mineset data as input for a transfer give the file with the schema extension the dictio nary file as the input file Stat Transfer will then look in the same directory for a file of the same name but with the data extension and will read the input data from this file Some of the more exotic features of Mineset files such as arrays and enumerations are not supported Writing Mineset files In the Output File Specification of the Transfer dialog box specify a name for the schema file The data file will then be written to the same directory with a data extension Missing Values Mineset uses for missing numeric values Stat Transfer recognizes this on input of Mineset files and writes it on output to Mineset files Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to Mineset from Stat
88. asiest way to do this A Assuming your dBASE files are in data dbase and you would like your output in data sas you can do this in a single command copy data sas dbf data sas sas7bdat Frequently Asked Questions 147 Q The user interface has lots of options The command processor just has that blank prompt How do I set some options in there A You can do anything in the command processor that you can do in theuser interface The simplest way to learn to use the command processor is to run a transfer with the user interface and when you are done press the Save Program button to generate a command file for the command processor Then examine the program from the Run Program tab All of the options and commands are thoroughtly documented in the online help or in this manual Q How do I set my options permanently so that I don t have to enter SET commands every time I start up the command processor A Put your SET commands in a file called profile stemd located in the same directory as Stat Transfer Licenses Q Can I install Stat Transfer on a network server A Our Single User or Workgroup licenses do not allow installation on a server If you want to share the use of Stat Transfer on a network please consider a multi user lease Q Can I share the use of Stat Transfer with my colleagues A Only if the use occurs on a single machine Please encourage the future development and sup port of Stat Transfer by complying w
89. at are to be read by Stat Transfer This procedure creates files in an entirely different and incompatible format Reading SAS Transport Files More than one data set may be stored in a single transport file If Stat Transfer finds more than one data set in a file it will allow you to select the one you want SAS Transport Files Supported Programs 133 Writing SAS Transport Files When Stat Transfer writes a SAS transport file it uses the file name of the input file without the ex tension as the internal name for the data set in the output file Stat Transfer will write only one data set to each output file Missing Data SAS supports the missing values A Z and Input On input when a SAS file is transferred to a Stata file or an ASCII file with extended missing values specified the SAS input missing values will be transferred to the equivalent ones in the output file For all other output formats all SAS missing values are converted to a single internal missing value in Stat Transfer Output When either an ASCII file or a Stata file with extended missing values is transferred to a SAS file the input missing values will transfer to the equivalent ones in the SAS output file For input files that support user missing values SPSS and OSIRIS the options User Missing Value and Map to extended a z missing in the Options 1 dialog box can be used to map selected user missing values to extended mis
90. at type will be used for the output If the assigned target type is not one of the available output types then a format of the next larger size will be used Automatic Optimiziation of Target Types Stat Transfer attempts to produce the smallest possible output data set After reading your data Stat Transfer will make an optimization pass during the transfer to determine more information about each variable and then will assign target output types First before the transfer information from the data file dictionary is read Unfortunately for some input data types this information is not sufficient to do anything other than set all of the output vari able types to float Stat Transfer will then make an additional optimization pass through your data By default this will occur during the transfer This pass will only be performed if the file contains any string variables or if the selected output file type is such that the output file could be made smaller by optimization Some output file types such as Stata have a rich assortment of storage types and benefit from optimi zation Others such as worksheets or files that have only one numeric type SPSS for example do not benefit Stat Transfer can determine whether any variables can be represented as integers and for those cases it can determine the smallest possible integral type that can be used to represent the data Further if a variable cannot be represented by an integral ty
91. ation Missing Values Support for missing values depends on the ODBC driver you are using However in most cases missing values are supported ODBC Data Sources Supported Programs 117 Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to ODBC from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte int Smallint long Integer float Real double Double date time date time Date Time Timestamp string 118 Supported Programs ODBC Data Sources Character OSIRIS Files OSIRIS is a general purpose statistical package written for use on IBM mainframes It is no longer actively supported However an enormous store of survey data are available in OSIRIS format from the Inter University Consortium for Political and Social Research ICPSR at the University of Mich igan For this reason Stat Transfer will read but not write OSIRIS data An OSIRIS data set consists of a dictionary file and a data file Standard Extension dict data Reading OSIRIS data When using OSIRIS data as input for a transfer you should make sure that the dictionary file and the data file have the same name and the extensions dict and data respectively They should also be in the same directory When naming the input file in the Transfer dialog box you must give the file with the lt MI UX O SA gt dict extension the
92. b pages Standard Extension htm Writing HTML Tables Field names will be written in bold characters as the first row of the table Values of each field are then written down the corresponding column The table generated by Stat Transfer is bracketed by lt HTML gt tags Thus it can be loaded directly into your browser However most users will probably want to cut and paste the table into a larger HTML page To make this process easier the output HTML tables have reasonably short lines and continuation lines are indented Note that HTML output is in general only appropriate for fairly small tables Stat Transfer will trans fer large data sets to HTML format However if you use a large table in a Web page many browsers will be brought to their knees when they try to read the table Missing Data Missing values for any data type are written as a non breaking space amp nbsp On any browser this will cause a blank table cell to be displayed Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to HTML Tables from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte int long float double Number with a precision of up to 15 decimal places string Character date time date time 108 Supported Programs HTML Tables Character written according to the ASCII format options currently in effect JMP Files J
93. ble names can be entered in this field by selecting their names from the variable list box When you double click on a variable name it will be copied to the case selection box 24 The Stat Transfer User Interface Observations Dialog Box Case Selection Expressions The WHERE statement is used to give the conditions on the variables that will define the subgroup of the data set that you wish to select The case selection or WHERE expression has the following form WHERE variable expression relational operator selection condition Here variable expression consists of a single variable or an expression involving several variables relational operator is one of the operators listed below while selection condition gives specifications for the variables to be selected Variable Expression All of the usual arithmetic operators are available for use in this expression If variable names used in WHERE expressions contain embedded blanks or characters such as rela tional or arithmetic operators like then they must be enclosed in single quotes Internal Variable An internal variable _ rownum is available which allows specific rows or records of the data set to be referenced Relational Operators The following relational operators are available equals not equal lt less than gt greater than lt less than or equal gt greater than or equal amp and or or used in a series not The
94. c users in particular might find it a bit less attractive But we hope that all users will find it considerably more functional e Stat Transfer has now standardized on the slash rather than the backslash as the path separator This works in Windows as well as the other platforms but Windows users may find mydir to be a bit strange Trust us it will work but if you have to use backslashes they will work as well e The options switch character in the command processor is now the dash on all platforms On Windows it used to be a slash The will still work but its use is discouraged e The behavior of the optimization pass has changed slightly The default is now use doubles Memory is less expensive and we feel it is better to have fewer surprises than smaller datasets The od switch in the command processor is still there but it does nothing If you want to use floats there is a new of switch e Because Stat Transfer is capable of handling multi byte characters the length of strings can vary in not very predictable ways We thus need to perform automatic optimization on every file that has string variables and on many more file formats than were required in prior versions We aretherefore leaving auto optimization on at all times e The options for the case conversion of variable names are now considerably more flexible and more clear Output programs have been classified into case sensitive ones e
95. ccess to such code and data except to the extent applicable law expressly permits such activity Decompiling or disassembling the software may also violate the software s copyright You may not sublicense sell rent lend lease sublicense or give away the software to others You may however with the prior written permission of Circle Systems transfer the software written materials and this license agreement as a package if the other party registers with Circle Systems and agrees to accept this agreement You may not transfer a license originally sold in a volume or network license unless you transfer all the licenses at the site You may not retain any copies of the software yourself once you have transferred it Any unauthorized copying distribution or modification of the software will automatically cancel your license to use the software and violate the software s copyright LIMITED WARRANTY AND REMEDIES Circle Systems warrants that the software will perform in substantial compliance with the specifications set forth in the user manual provided with the software provided that it is not modified and it is used on the computer hardware and with the operating system for which it was designed Circle Systems also warrants that any disk media and printed user manuals it provides are free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use These warranties are limited to the 90 day period from your original purchase If you report i
96. cessor discussion Creating a File with the PROC FORMAT Statement To create the new file for Stat Transfer to use for reading your SAS value labels you will need to go into SAS and run the following small program libname mylib path proc format library mylib cntlout mylib sas fmts run 7 where path is the directory that contains your input data file SAS Value Labels Supported Programs 129 This procedure creates a SAS file in the directory path that has the format information for each SAS data file In this case the file will have the name sas_fimts ext where ext is the extension of the input SAS file and it will be found in the same directory as the input file To put your formats in CPORT library use PROC FORMAT after the above procedure To create a format library in a Transport file use the same procedure as above but reference the XPORT engine in the output libname statement Transferring Value Labels with Data When you carry out a transfer with a SAS data file as input Stat Transfer will check to see if you have checked the option Read directly from a catalog file If so the formats will be transferred au tomatically from the catalog file named in the SAS catalog name box If you check any of the other options Stat Transfer will look for the file that you have specified and the formats will be transferred automatically Restrictions on Importing Value Labels SAS catalog files not only suppor
97. changeover year will have the first two digits set to 19 The default for the option is 20 so that the changeover year from one century to another is 1920 Thus the date 1 1 01 will be interpreted as January 1 2001 while the date 1 1 31 will be interpreted as January 1 1931 If your data refer to dates earlier than 1920 such as birth dates you will need to override the default behavior and specify a different changeover year If for example you specify 00 this would cause all two digit dates to be interpreted as years in the twentieth century Date Time Formats Writing Stat Transfer gives you considerable control over how dates and times written to output ASCII files You can control the formatting for date values time values and combined date time values in the Date Time and Date Time edit boxes Output formats that you supply are used to convert date and time values to character strings Each date or time part of the output format has the form char Leading zeros cause the value to printed with leading zeros For example 0d will print the day of the month with a leading zero 32 The Stat Transfer User Interface Options Dialog Box The characters below are used to create the output formats Anything to be printed in the output char acter string that is not in the list below such as commas spaces or other delimiters must be given ex plicitly in the output format a abbreviated weekday A full name
98. colons or some other character e The character that will be used to enclose string variables on output It is typically a double quote e What character will be used for missing values e What line ending to use e The date and time formats e Whether Stat Transfer should write variable names in the first row of the output ASCII Files Delimited Supported Programs 87 All of the options available for writing ASCII files are set in the Options dialog box in the sections Date Time Formats Writing and ASCII Text File Write Options these options are discussed in detail on Pages 32 and Page 36 The command processor options can be found in Setting Options with the Set Command Page 68 Missing Values By default missing values are indicated on input and output by one delimiter immediately following another You may change this default behavior in the ASCII Text File Write Options section of the Options dialog box or with the SET command Extended missing values are supported If the missing values option is set to extended then when an ASCII file with extended missing values is transferred to a SAS or Stata file the input missing val ues will transfer to the equivalent SAS ones When a SAS file is transferred to an ASCII file with ex tended missing values specified any missing values in the input SAS file are written out as in the output Note that if a blank is used as the delimiter missing val
99. con vert these variables to numbers in my output file A Stat Transfer will let you change strings to numbers when reading worksheets and ASCII files but it will generally not let you do so when reading other file types You can work around this limita tion by first setting the ASCII File Write option String Quote Character to blank Then transfer your file to delimited ASCII When you read the ASCH file and transfer it to your final destination format your numeric variables which were formally stored as strings will be numeric Q Ihave a file in which I want some numbers to be transferred as strings How can I do that A Write it to an ASCII file with a Stat Transfer Schema Then edit the Schema and change the vari ables you want to convert to a string type Then read the file back in Q What s the best way to get support for Stat Transfer A If your question is of the form How do I do X please look first in the manual If that does not solve your problem send an email with your serial number and the exact version you are using to support stattransfer com On the other hand if you think you have found a bug in S tat Transfer please use the tools on the Log tab of the user interface That will allow you to send us a complete description of your problem your computing environament and the files that are necessary to reproduce the problem Command Processor Q When I go to the Start menu in Windows and click on S
100. coor where coor gives the coordinates of a specific range and the optional page specification page gives the worksheet page either as a name or a page number followed by If no page is given then by default the first page is used For example copy sales wkl deptl sas7bdat ral 1i20 will move the range A1 120 to the file deptl sas7bdat while copy testdat wb3 triall sav r4 c6 t200 will transfer the range C6 T200 from page 4 of the worksheet testdat wb3 to the file triall sav Specifying Worksheet Pages Worksheet pages can be specified with either of the parameters Tn or Tname where n is the page number and name is the page name You must use quotes around the entire pa rameter if name contains blanks Examples are copy dept xls out dta t3 copy dept xls out dta tnov sales Wildcard Operators The wildcard operators and allow you to move more than one input worksheet page with a sin gle command For example suppose the worksheet company xls consists of two pages sales and marketing Then copy company xls dept dbf t will move each page to a separate dBASE file The output file names will be the root name of the output file that given in the COPY command with the page names appended dept_sales dbf and dept_marketing dbf Wildcards in the file name can be mixed with wildcards in the page parameter For example to trans fer all of the pages in all of the worksheet files in the
101. ct ASCII Fixed Format S T Schema from the list of supported file types at the Input File Type line of the Transfer dialog box In the File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box rather than entering the name of the fixed format ASCII file itself enter the name of the Schema file that describes it Schema files will gener ally have the name of the input fixed format data file and the extension sts The Schema file then points to the data file Thus the location of the data file must be accurately given in the Schema file If Stat Transfer wrote the Schema file originally then the exact path that Stat Transfer used to write the ASCH file on your machine was entered as the file location in the Schema file The file location can be changed by opening up the Schema in any plain text editor and giving the file location with the FILE command Comments in the first lines of the Schema or program file will guide you in changing the specified file location Using the Command Processor To specify a fixed format ASCII file as input to Stat Transfer when using the command processor give the name of the Schema file as the input file in the COPY command The file should have the extension sts If for some reason your file does not have the extension sts then you can use the file type tag stfixed The Schema file then points to the data file as described above Writing Fixed Format ASCII Data Files On output Stat Transfer can
102. d Circle Systems its agents and employees with respect to this subject No Circle Systems distributor dealer or agent is authorized to make any modification extension or addition to this Agreement and the limited warranty and limitation of liability The laws of the State of Washington USA govern this agreement Contents Introduction What Stat Transfer Does Supported File Types What s New in Stat Transfer Formats Other New Features Help for Old Friends Read me File Installation Installing Stat Transfer on Windows Installing Stat Transfer on OS X Installing Stat Transfer on Linux Downloading Stat Transfer from Our Web Site Trial Version Activation Installing on a Second Computer Resources Demo Files Web Updates Online Documentation Removing Stat Transfer Technical Support The Stat Transfer User Interface The User Interface Starting Stat Transfer Transfer Dialog Box Selecting the Input File Format Selecting the Input Data File Data Viewer Variable Selection Indicator Selecting the Output File Format Selecting the Output File Running the Program Variables Dialog Box Variable Selection Output Variable Types Automatic Optimiziation of Target Types Manually Changing the Types of Output Variables Observations Dialog Box Selecting Cases from the Input File Case Selection Expressions Sampling Functions Nea NN DODO TON O RWW W oOo 10 10 10 11 11 11 14 14 15 16 17
103. d a Version 3 JMP file then the file name must be preceded by the file type tag jmp3 Writing JMP Files Variable labels when available from the input file will be written to JMP output files as variable notes You can choose to have Stat Transfer write value labels to output JMP files by checking the option Write value labels to JMP files in the JMP Options section of the Options dialog box Reading JMP files with the Command Processor Since the same standard extension is used for all versions of JMP files it is necessary to use a file type tag to distinguish them when writing JMP files with the command processor Version 6 is written by default That is if the output is a Version 6 JMP file that has the standard ex tension jmp no file type tag is needed If you want to write a Version 3 JMP file then the file name must be preceded by the file type tag jmp3 For Version 4 and 6 JMP files the file name must be preceded by the file type tag jmp4 Missing Values JMP has a missing value for each numeric type Stat Transfer recognizes these on reading JMP files and will write them to JMP output JMP Files Supported Programs 109 Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to JMP from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type float Numeric double byte Integer int Integer2 long Integer4 string Character
104. d by clicking on the Options tab and then on Worksheets allows you to combine worksheet pages into a single output file If you check this op tion then when you name one page all of the pages will be read and concatenated into an output file of any type This option is appropriate if your worksheet file contains many sheets that are identical in structure These can be then be combined into a single output file Selecting Tables for Access and ODBC Input Whenever you select either an Access file or an ODBC data source as input Stat Transfer will dis play a Table selection line below the input File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box The name of the first table will appear on the Table line and unless you select another one will be the table used as the input data set by Stat Transfer If the data you wish to use are in a different table click on the control arrow and select the appropriate table from the list that appears Selecting Members of SAS Transport Files Whenever you select a SAS CPORT or Transport file as input Stat Transfer will display a Member selection line below the input File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box The name of the first member will appear on the Member line and unless you select another one will be the member of the SAS file used as the input data set by Stat Transfer If the data you wish to use are in a different member click on the control arrow and select the appropriate member from th
105. de these defaults and set the output types yourself You can change output variable types manually as described in the section Changing Output Vari able Types Page 66 If you choose to do so the parameter o should not be used with the COPY command Floats Option The behavior of the use of floats or doubles during the optimization pass has changed By default Stat Transfer will evaluate each variable to see if it can be represented as a float without a loss of information and will otherwise put those variables that require it into a double Before Version 10 the default was to use floats You could choose to use doubles by using the od switch ina COPY command The od switch is still there but it does nothing Memory is less ex pensive and we feel it is better to have fewer surprises than smaller datasets 60 The Command Processor Options Set by Parameters after COPY If you want to change the default and use floats there is a new of switch which tells Stat Trans fer to put variables with fractional parts into floats on output Most data are not measured with more than eight or nine digits of precision survey data for exam ple never are If you are concerned with the size of your output dataset you might want to use the floats option To tell the Stat Transfer command processor to force numbers with fractional parts into floats where appropriate use
106. dictionary file as the input file Stat Transfer will then look in the same directory for a file of the same name but with the data extension and will read the input data from this file Stat Transfer supports OSIRIS Type 1 data sets which is the variant in which data are usually distrib uted The dictionary file is a binary file in which strings are represented in EBCDIC notation The data files were originally in that format but the ICPSR generally distributes them in ASCII format Stat Transfer will support either of these formats and automatically senses which format your data are in If you are downloading an OSIRIS dictionary for use with Stat Transfer you should use a binary file transfer mode OSIRIS has variable and value labels which are supported by Stat Transfer Missing Values An OSIRIS dictionary allows for two numeric missing values By default these are recognized by Stat Transfer However the default behavior can changed with the User Missing Values selection of the Options dialog box OSIRIS Files Supported Programs 119 Paradox Tables Because Paradox stores numbers in binary rather than character representation and because it explic itly supports missing values it is a much more suitable file format for statistical data than the dBASE format Stat Transfer reads Versions 4 9 and writes a version that is compable with 7 9 Standard Extension db Reading Paradox Files Paradox variable names can be up
107. ding Target output types changing Technical support Thousands separator option time target type Transfer dialog box Transferring back to original format between worksheet formats Trial mode software Triple S files Troubleshooting TYPES CLEAR command TYPES command U Updates for Stat Transfer Use doubles User formats SAS User interface options User missing values V Value label browser options Value label tags preserve Value labels for strings Value labels SAS Variable info viewer options Variable names maximum length Variable selection command processor user interface Variable selection indicator Variable selector quick Variables assigning numeric names automatic selection changing output types doubles option dropping constant names optimizing output output target types Variables dialog box VARS command Version writing older Viewer data 11 18 80 15 145 146 66 66 8 23 29 126 128 43 30 69 3 20 43 28 79 126 128 14 44 79 64 65 19 14 20 28 17 19 22 66 67 23 60 23 61 21 60 20 19 23 64 66 71 W Web update WHERE statements _missing variable in arithmetic operatiors in comma operator examples preserving relational operatiors in remainder operator in sampling functions wildcards in Wildcards combining files for Access tables for SAS members for worksheet pages in case selection in input file names in selec
108. dows SAS catalog file containing formats and wish to read them select Read di rectly from a catalog file If this option is selected the entry Y ipath formats sas7bcat will automatically appear in the Name box below the SAS Value Labels Reading box This instructs Stat Transfer to look for a file named formats sas 7bdat in the same directory as your data file You can change the path if your file is in a different location Read from a catalog in a CPORT Library stc Select this option if you have a Windows CPORT library file that contains the formats for your data set Your data will usually be read from a CPORT file as well but need not be If this option is selected the entry ipath oiname stc will automatically appear in the Name box below the SAS Value Labels Reading box This instructs Stat Transfer to look for a file with the same name as your input file and the extension sfc in the same directory as your data file You can change the path if your file is in a different location If the Use default catalog name box is checked Stat Transfer will look in the CPORT file for a cata log named formats which is the SAS default If you would like to read your formats from a different catalog uncheck the box and then click on the Read Library button to get a list of catalogs in the CPORT file You can then select the catalog that contains the formats that are appropriate for your data Read a SAS datafil
109. e sas7bdat The selection Read a SAS datafile is the appropriate option if you are working on a SAS platform other than Windows and wish to read user defined formats As described in the supported programs section SAS Value Labels for cases where you are not working in Windows Stat Transfer can read user defined formats that are produced in SAS data set form by PROC FORMAT using the cntlout keyword When this option is selected then by default Stat Transfer will look in the same directory as your in put data set for a file named sas_fmts ext where ext is the extension of your input file If you would like to use a file located somewhere else or with a different name you can change it in the Name box below the SAS Value Labels Reading box You can type in a complete file specification or you can use the macros below as part of the file specification 38 The Stat Transfer User Interface Options Dialog Box ipath The path including the directory of the input file iname The name without the extension of the input file iext The extension without the dot of the input file Read from a dataset in a CPORT Library stc This option is appropriate if your formats were written with the cntlout option of PROC FORMAT into a CPORT library If this option is selected the entry Y ipath Yoiname stc will automatically appear in the Name box below the SAS Value Labels Reading box This instructs Stat
110. e list that appears Most Recently Used File Lists If you often use the same input file you can use the Most Recently Used file list to select the file By default for each different file type Stat Transfer will maintain a list of the last ten files that have been opened You can select any one of these files by first clicking on the control arrow of the File Specification input field to display the list and then clicking on the file you wish to use If you would like to store longer lists you can do so by setting a higher number in the User Interface Options of the Options tab Transfer Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 13 Data Viewer You can preview your input data by pressing the View button in the Transfer dialog box Your data will appear in a scrollable grid By default the viewer is on The data can be sorted by any variable by clicking on the variable name You can navigate to any row by entering the row number in the Quick Navigation box and then pressing Go Columns can be moved by clicking and holding the column heading and then dragging the column to the new location To set viewer options go to the Options tab and click on Data Viewer Options To return to the Transfer screen press Close Viewer Long String Viewer The data viewer will now display long strings international character sets variable characteristics and value labels The long string viewer is new in Version 10 It allows you to see s
111. e of this these variable types are written as Date Time values You may if you wish change the for mat with Access after you have transferred your data Missing Data Access supports a null value which is the same as Stat Transfer s missing value Output Variable Types The output variable type that results from each target variable type is given in the following table Access Supported Programs 85 Output to Access from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Short int long Long float Single double Double date time date time Date Time string Character 86 Supported Programs Access ASCII Files Delimited Stat Transfer will read and write delimited ASCII Note that as of version 10 ASCII is used as a shorthand since Stat Transfer supports a variety of character sets besides ASCII If you need to read or write data in a character set that is something other than your system s default character set you will need to set the encoding options Standard extension txt csv Reading ASCII Delimited Files When reading ASCII delimited files you can use the menu or command processor options to specify e What character is read as the delimiter You can explicitly specify the character or you can al low the program to sense it automatically e That adjacent blank delimiters be combined e Whether or not the first row is treated as variable names or whether Stat Transfer s
112. e of the Transfer dialog box The default name of the output table will be taken from the input file name If you wish to use an other name type it in the Table line Naming Members of SAS Transport Files Whenever you select a SAS Transport file as output Stat Transfer will display a Member selection line below the output File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box The default name of the output member will be taken from the input file name If you wish to use an other name type it in the Member line Overwriting Output Files By default Stat Transfer will check to see if the destination file al ready exists and warn you that an existing file is about to be overwrit ten You can suppress this warning in the General Options section of the Options dialog box 16 The Stat Transfer User Interface Transfer Dialog Box Running the Program The Transfer Button When you have specified the input and output file types and names with information on member or page when needed and if you wish to you have also specified information on variables and case se lection click on the Transfer button and the data will be transferred Simple Transfers If you wish to transfer everything in the input data set and you use the output target types assigned by Stat Transfer you need only specify the input and output file types and names in the Transfer dialog box You can then click on the Transfer button and run the job You do not need
113. e of the fact that ODBC will return a connection string that contains all of the information that you entered This information is in the proper form to com plete the connection again without any prompting from the ODBC driver manager You can obtain the connection string from an ODBC data source by connecting interactively to the source and then entering either dbr connstr or dow connstr You will find that the connection strings are generally long and complicated so that typing one into a command file after retrieval is tedious and error prone Furthermore because the connection string may contain your password you might not want it written openly to a command file Stat Transfer solves these problems with operators that allow you to write or retrieve the value of any parameter and by allowing encryption The Write and Retrieve Operators The operator gt allows you to store the value of any parameter in a file while the operator lt allows you to read back a stored value DBR DBW parametername gt lt storagefile Thus in order to write the connection string for an input ODBC data source to a file connect str type dbr connstr gt connect str To retrieve the connection string and make it available to an input ODBC data source type dbr connstr lt connect str To use a connection string in a batch job you can connect interactively to the ODBC data source use the gt operator to store the connecti
114. e sure that you use a binary error cor recting file transfer protocol If your file is in the proper format and you still cannot read it please report the error using the mecha nism on the Log tab of the user interface The SAS file format has not been publicly documented and there may be aspects of it that we are not supporting properly Please let us know about any problems you are having so that we can fix them for you and others Frequently Asked Questions 149 Q SAS refuses to read the SAS data file created by Stat Transfer What should I do A First make sure that you are writing the proper kind of file for the flavor of SAS you are using and that you are transporting the file properly Then check our Web site to see if there is a problem that has already been fixed If you think you have discovered a new problem please let us know about it so we can fix it In the meantime you can always use the Stat Transfer output option SAS Program ASCII Data File and then use the generated SAS program to read the ASCII data file into SAS SAS Transport Files Q Stat Transfer reports a dictionary error or otherwise refuses to read my SAS file What is the matter A Most commonly particularly when the file is received from others the problem is that the file is not really a transport file but rather is another kind of system file You should examine the first part of the file either in an editor or by simply typing it
115. e time Number formatted as an SPSS date Number formatted as an SPSS time Number formatted as an SPSS date time string 138 Supported Programs SPSS Data Files Character SPSS Portable Files SPSS Portable files previously called Export files were designed to transfer SPSS data sets between different kinds of computers You can use them to move your data to and from mainframe SPSS X and SPSS for the PC Standard Extension por Reading and Writing SPSS Portable Files Long variable names used in Version 12 and above are supported Long strings used in Version 13 are read and written Reading SPSS Portable Files Mainframe Portable files should be transferred to your PC using an error correcting communications protocol It is quite difficult to check these files visually for errors and certain errors may fatally af fect the ability of Stat Transfer to interpret the file Writing SPSS Portable Files When Stat Transfer writes Portable files it does so with up to ten base thirty digits of precision Missing Data SPSS allows for three numeric missing values By default these are recognized by Stat Transfer The default behavior can be changed with the User Missing Values selection of the Options dialog box see Page 30 By default when the option Map to extended a z missing is left unchecked all user missing val ues that are selected according the options Use All Use First Use none will go to a single missin
116. e variable names or the first row of data It does so by look ing for at least one column in which there is a string in the first row and a number in the second If this behavior is inappropriate for your worksheet for example if you have only string data you can specify different options in the Field Name Row drop down menu of the Worksheets section of the Options dialog box You can specify that variable names must be taken from the first non blank row that they be taken from a specific row or that the worksheet does not contain variable names so that Stat Transfer should assign them coll through coln Quattro Pro Worksheet Files Supported Programs 121 Determining the Data Types and Widths After identifying the label row Stat Transfer will look if necessary at the entire column to find the first non blank cell in order to determine the data type of each column If the first non empty data cell of a particular column is a number or a label with a single period Stat Transfer will transfer the column as a number If the data cell contains a label the variable will be transferred as a string The width of the column for each numeric variable and the format of the first non blank data cell in that column are used where possible to set the default target or output types for the numeric vari ables If the format of the first data row has any decimal places for example F 2 the target type will be float On the o
117. e3 Note that you use the file name without the extension The file name itself may contain some information about the data in the file For example you might have input files with data for each state with files named with the state name In such cases you may wish to have an additional variable created from the input file names and written to the output file The parameter f tells Stat Transfer to create a new variable from the input file names This can be combined with the reference file specification For example f file3 tells Stat Transfer to use file3 as the reference file and to create a new output variable from the input file names All of the options used with the COPY command can be used with the COMBINE command 54 The Command Processor Combining Files Specifying the File Type File Format Specification Standard Extensions and File Type Tags When a COPY command is given Stat Transfer tries to determine the file types of both the input and output files by looking for standard extensions An alternative for specifying the file type is to use a file type tag instead of a standard extension In some cases this tag is needed even when standard extensions are used See the table below for a list of the standard extensions and file type tags used by Stat Transfer or a a list of standard extensions and file type tags can be obtained by typing help formats at the command prompt Standard Extensions
118. ead but not write Windows CPORT files for versions higher than SAS Seven Standard extension ste Reading CPORT Files CPORT files can contain multiple datasets as well as catalogs that contain value labels When using the user interface menus if you select a CPORT file as input Stat Transfer will display a Member se lection line below the input File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box see Page 13 You should select the member from which you want to read your data here If you are using the command processor you select the member by using the Tmembername switch with the Copy command see Page 59 If you want to read value labels from the same CPORT file you can do so by setting the appropriate options See SAS Value Labels Page 128 Missing Data Stst Transfer supports the SAS missing values A 2 and _ On input when a SAS file is transferred to a Stata file or an ASCII file with extended missing values specified the SAS input missing values will be transferred to the equivalent ones in the output file For all other output formats SAS missing values are converted to a single internal missing value in Stat Transfer 132 Supported Programs SAS CPORT SAS Transport Files Stat Transfer will read and write data sets in the SAS Transport format This is according to the SAS Institute the best overall format for interfacing with other systems because it is consistent acro
119. ecessary on the second and higher sheets You will end up with the data from all of your worksheet pages in a single output file Writing Excel Worksheet Files On output by default Stat Transfer will write variable labels in the first row of the worksheet Data values will be placed in the second and succeeding rows You can change this behavior in the Worksheets options in the Options dialog box Column widths and formats will be determined by the variable information available Dates and character variables are straightforward For numerical data information on the width and number of decimal places of variables where available is used to set the column widths and formats 104 Supported Programs Excel Worksheets Missing Data On input blank cells and cells containing labels consisting of a single dot are read as missing If there is a string in your worksheet such as NA that you would like to have treated as a numeric missing value you can specify it using the Numeric Missing Value option in the Worksheets sec tion of the Options dialog box When transferring data to worksheets from other formats missing values will be written out to worksheets as blank cells Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to Excel from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Numeric cell int formatted if information is long avail
120. eets from other formats missing values will be written out to worksheets as blank cells Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to Quattro Pro from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Numeric cell int formatted if information is long available float double string Label date Serial date number with date format time Time fraction with date format if available date time Date number time fraction with date time format if available Quattro Pro Worksheet Files Supported Programs 123 Ris a free open source environment for statistical computing and graphics Stat Transfer will read and write workspace files for Version 2 of R Standard Extension rdata Reading R files The R file format is very unstructured and allows the user to write almost anything into it Therefore Stat Transfer imposes a few restrictions on input files Specifically your data file should contain at least one of the following kinds of objects e two dimensional matrices e vectors e factors e dataframes Stat Transfer can read R files in either binary or the more common ASCII format Compressed files are recognized but not supported You should decompress these first with another program such as gzip or Winzip Factors Factors in R consist of a vector of zero based numeric values and a vector of string labels t
121. elect cases from the input file with the Stat Transfer command processor using the same WHERE statement that you would use with the user interface A complete description of WHERE statements is given in the Stat Transfer User Interface section Selecting Cases Page 24 When using case selection with the command processor the WHERE statement is entered before the COPY command The accuracy of the WHERE statement will be checked only when the COPY command is executed For this reason particular care should be taken when typing in variable names Selecting Cases The Command Processor 63 Selecting Variables Variables to be transferred can be selected when you are using the COPY command from the Stat Transfer command processor or when you are using a command file When you are using a command file at the operating system command line you can enter operators for variable selection However transfers that are typed in at the operating system command line will transfer all of the input variables Variables can be selected with one of the commands KEEP DROP or TYPES Only one of these commands can be given and it must be given prior to the COPY command KEEP and DROP Commands The commands KEEP or DROP are used when you wish to select variables but do not wish to change the output variable types assigned by Stat Transfer You can use the SET command DROP KEEP to reuse the same variable list for more than one trans fer see Page 72
122. ema or program file When the ASCII file with its accompanying Schema or program file is written on output by default the exact path that Stat Transfer uses to write the output ASCII file on your machine will be entered as the file location in the Schema or program file If you change this behavior with the Options for Generated Programs Page 37 the output ASCII data file specification will be written to all of the program files using the directory as the path The file location can be changed by opening up the Schema or program file in any plain text editor and giving the file location with the FILE command Comments in the first lines of the Schema or program file will guide you in changing the specified file location Missing Data By default missing values are indicated on input and output by a blank field This behavior can be changed with the Numeric Missing Value option to extended in the ASCII READ or ASCII WRITE sections of the Options dialog box or with the SET command Extended missing values are supported If the missing values option is set to extended when an ASCII file with extended missing values is transferred to a SAS or Stata file the input missing values will transfer to the equivalent SAS ones When a SAS file is transferred to an ASCII file with ex tended missing values specified any missing values in the input SAS file are written out as in the output Output Variable Types
123. empts to use all of the information at its disposal about the input data variables in order to preserve numeric precision and at the same time minimize the size of the output data set 20 The Stat Transfer User Interface Variables Dialog Box When reading numerical variables Stat Transfer selects a target output variable type based on the in formation available to it This target variable type is not used for internal storage during the transfer but is simply the preferred output type If this type is not supported in the chosen output file type the best approximation will be chosen The various target output variable types used by Stat Transfer are Stat Transfer Target Output Variable Types byte one byte signed integer 128 to 100 int two byte signed integer 32768 to 32740 long four byte signed integer float four byte IEEE single precision floating point number double eight byte IEEE double precision floating point number date date stored as serial day number the number of days since December 30 1899 time fraction of a day 12 00 noon 5 date time floating point number integer part serial day number fractional part time string character string of a maximum length specified by the input file Remember that the target type will not necessarily be the actual output type Ifthe target type as signed to a variable by Stat Transfer is available as one of the variable types of the output file format then th
124. empty data cell of a particular column is a number or a label with a single period Stat Transfer will transfer the column as a number If the data cell contains a label the variable will be transferred as a string The width of the column for each numeric variable and the format of the first non blank data cell in that column are used where possible to set the default target or output types for the numeric vari ables If the format of the first data row has any decimal places for example F 2 the target type will be float On the other hand if the cell format has no decimal places for example F 0 the tar get types will be various flavors of integers which depend on the column width If the column width is less than three the target type will be byte If the column width is less than five the target type will by int Otherwise the target type will be long Any date format in the first data row will set the target type to date The maximum width of character variables is determined by examining the widths of all of the strings in a column Stat Transfer is lenient in typing variables from worksheets If it is expecting a character variable and it encounters a number it will convert it to a string Combining Multiple Input Worksheet to a Single Output File The option Concatenate Worksheet Pages found in the Worksheets options in the Options dialog box allows you to combine worksheet pages into a single
125. erial date numbers labels or formulas The first non blank row of a worksheet database file usually has labels in each column that give the names of the variables The data then begins in the next row However variable labels may be in dif ferent rows or not present at all You have several options to specify what part of an input worksheet to read and how to read variable names Data Range You can choose different ranges to be read in input worksheets by using the drop down menu for Data Range in the Worksheets section of the Options dialog box or using the SET command WKS DATA RANGE If you use Autosense the default Stat Transfer will read to the first non blank cell and use that as the upper left corner of the data range It will then read data until it encounters an entirely blank line This is the default behavior You can change the behavior with respect to blank rows by using the Blank Rows option Rather than have Stat Transfer automatically sense the number of rows to be read you can use the other options for Data Range to specify a range either by giving a named range or by giving explicit coordinates When a range has been specified Stat Transfer s treatment of entirely blank rows will also be over ridden They will be returned in your output data and in addition blank rows at the end of the worksheet through the last row of the specified range will also be returned Excel Worksheets Supported Programs 103 De
126. ess the warning messages COPY infilename ex outfilename ex2 y In this case if an output file already exists with the same name it will be overwritten with no warn ing Suppress Messages at the Stat Transfer Prompt When running a transfer from the Stat Transfer prompt by default a number of messages monitoring the progress of the transfer will appear Options Set by Parameters after COPY The Command Processor 61 The parameter q will suppress all messages from Stat Transfer with the exception of error mes sages and warnings that a file is about to be overwritten COPY infilename ex1 outfilename ex2 q Show Messages at the Operating System Prompt When run from the operating system prompt Stat Transfer will only issue error messages and warn ings that a file is about to be overwritten If you wish to see messages monitoring the progress of the transfer use the parameter v to get more verbose output ST infilename ex outfilename ex2 v 62 The Command Processor Options Set by Parameters after COPY Selecting Cases Cases to be transferred can be selected when you are using the COPY command from the Stat Trans fer command processor or when you are using a command file When you are using a command file at the operating system command line you can enter operators for case selection However transfers that are typed in at the operating system command line will transfer all of the input cases You can s
127. face Options Dialog Box Run Program Dialog Box lt gt Stat Transfer Oj xi Transfer Variables Observations Options Run Program Log About Content of the command file D stp gss stemd setmap usermiss y a setdate fmtwrite m d Y settime fmtwrite 0H 0M 05 set datetime fmt write m d Y 0H 0M 05 Seve setnum miss wr none where EDUC gt 12 Run copy D stp gss sav stata se D stp gss dta Stop quit r Output Window Serial DFBD GHSR JFXD XYXF User Status License OK Transferring from SPSS Data File D stp gss sav Input file has 49 variables Optimizing Transferring to Stata SE D stp gss dta 745 cases were transferred 0 80 seconds 49 variables selected This is a new feature in Version 10 You can now load edit and run a Stat Transfer command proces sor program directly from this tab in the user interface Typically these will be programs that have been automatically generated by the user interface but you can run any Stat Transfer program from this window Creating a Program Automatically from the User Interface You can generate a program for the command processor by pressing the Save Program button on the Transfer dialog box after the transfer is complete or by setting an option to activate automatic program generation When this program is written it keeps all of the selections you have entered in the dialog boxes and it tr
128. files but with the extension dct The complete name and path of the output ASCII data file will be encoded in the program file You can then load the program file that with the sas sps or do extension directly in SAS SPSS or Stata to produce a data set with same name as the program file If necessary the ASCH file specifica tion encoded in the program files can be changed using any text editor that handles plain text see below 90 Supported Programs ASCII Files Fixed Format Using the Command Processor You can write fixed format ASCII files using the command processor The only change from the description given above for using the menus is that the type of output is specified by using an appropriate extension for the output file name in the COPY command rather than making a selection from the menus The file extensions used to specify each type of output are Fixed format ASCII with a SCHEMA file sts Fixed format ASCII with a SAS program sas dat Fixed format ASCII with an SPSS program spss dat Fixed format ASCII with a Stata program stat dat Changing File Specifications in the Schema or Program File When a fixed format ASCII file is used as input either to Stat Transfer with a Schema file or to SAS SPSS or Stata with a program file the first file that is read is either the Schema file or a program file This file then points to the actual data file Thus the location of the data file must be accurately given in the Sch
129. fine tune this process by selecting types for output variables yourself Any variable and value labels present in the input data set will be written to Stata files Variable la bels longer than Stata s eighty character maximum are now written to Stata both as truncated variable labels and in full as Stata notes Dates are written to Stata s internal date format Missing Data Stata supports missing values Versions 8 and above of Stata support SAS style extended missing values The missing values A Z and are supported The missing value _ found in SAS is not used in Stata Stat Transfer supports these extended missing values When an Stata file with extended missing values is transferred to a SAS or ASCII file the input miss ing values will transfer to the equivalent SAS or ASCII ones When a SAS file or ASCII file is trans ferred to an Stata file with extended missing values specified missing values will transfer to equivalent ones except that in input SAS files is written out as in the output For input files that support user missing values SPSS and OSIRIS the options User Missing Value and Map to extended a z missing in the Options dialog box can be used to map selected user missing values to extended missing values in the Stata output file Stata Files Supported Programs 141 Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable t
130. format of the first data row has any decimal places for example F 2 the target type will be float On the other hand if the cell format has no decimal places for example F 0 the tar get types will be various flavors of integers which depend on the column width If the column width is less than three the target type will be byte If the column width is less than five the target type will by int Otherwise the target type will be long Any date format in the first data row will set the target type to date The maximum width of character variables is determined by examining the widths of all of the strings in a column Stat Transfer is lenient in typing variables from worksheets If it is expecting a character variable and it encounters a number it will convert it to a string Combining Multiple Input Worksheet to a Single Output File The option Concatenate Worksheet Pages found in the Worksheets options in the Options dialog box allows you to combine worksheet pages into a single output file This option is appropriate if your worksheet contains many sheets that are identical in structure These can be then be combined into a single output file of any type For example you may have a workbook that has 50 sheets with one sheet for each state and the same variables on each sheet If you check this box Stat Transfer will effectively combine the sheets into one large input file dropping the field names if n
131. g Stata R and SPLUS and those which are not You can now set separate case conversion rules for each class of programs They include a smart mode that will preserve case for mixed case input vari ables while rolling others into lower case e We think one of the most useful features is the automatic generation of command processor pro grams You can do this for a single transfer by pressing the Save Program button on the Trans fer tab or you can do it for all transfers by setting an option The saved program not only has your copy command but saves the state of all options that are relevant to your transfer It thus allows you to not only re run your transfer but to thoroughly document it Read me File The installation procedure may copy a file called read me which will be a supplement to the manual There is a shortcut to the read me file from the Windows Start menu in the Stat Transfer group For OS X and Unix the read me file can be found in the installation directory We make every effort to keep up with changes in the file formats of popular software and the read me file will contain the latest information on which versions of these programs are supported The file will also contain the latest information on other improvements to Stat Transfer You can also get current information about Stat Transfer by visiting our Web site at http www stattransfer com You can reach our Web site from the Stat Transfer About scree
132. g value which will then be converted to the system missing value in the target package in SAS or Stata for example If the option Map to extended a z missing is checked user missing values will be mapped if pos sible to extended missing values in formats that support them SAS ASCH or Stata If possible the first letter of the value label will be used as the missing value For instance if the value 0 is a user missing value and is labeled as inapplicable it will be mapped to 1 This map ping will only occur for missing values that are computed with an equal operator If there is no label or if the missing letter has already been used the missing value will be mapped 3 5 sequentially to a c On output to SPSS missing values are set to the SPSS system missing value Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table SPSS Portable Files Supported Programs 139 Output to SPSS Portable Files from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Number int long float double string String date Date time Character date time written according to the ASCII format options currently in effect 140 Supported Programs SPSS Portable Files Stata Files Stat Transfer will read and write data for any version of Stata including versions running on Unix and the Macintosh
133. given in order to specify the output width when writing program files with fixed format ASCII data You can give either a width such as F2 or a width and implied number of decimals such as F4 2 In order for these widths to be used in the output file you should check the option Preserve Input Widths in the ASCII File Write section of the Options dialog box For dates and times you should use a Stat Transfer date input format as documented in the ASCII op tions given on Page 31 For dates in the format 1950 MAY 10 for example you would use Y m d The formats given here override those selected in the Options dialog box Note that different formats can be used for different date and time variables Optional Elements for both Fixed and Delimited ASCII Data Missing Value Specifications Missing values can be coded in your input data file as blank or as one of the extended missing values and a z See Page 36 for specifying extended missing values However it is probably better practice to code missing values numerically in your data and then as sign these numbers to missing as the data are read in This allows the missing data to become a sub ject of analysis Up to three missing value specifications can be entered for each variable or variable list or variable range for fixed format files These are entered on the same line as the variable name list or range following the variable specification elemen
134. hat are mapped onto the values If the input file contains factors you can choose to have these written to an output file as the numeric values and their value labels or you can write them as strings This option is controlled in the R and S Plus Options section of the Options dialog box If you are going to a package such a Stata or SPSS that supports value labels the first option is more appropriate Writing R files On output Stat Transfer writes an R dataframe If your input data set does not have a variable named rownames Stat Transfer will create an extra variable containing the case number stored as an inte ger variable and named rownames Stat Transfer writes R data in ASCII format which is compatible across platforms Missing Data R supports missing values On input missing values are converted to the internal missing value in Stat Transfer On output missing values are converted to the value appropriate for each variable type Version one string missing If you are using Version One of R check this option Write version one string missing and the ap propriate value will be written for null or missing strings If you are using a later version of R leave this unchecked Output Variable Types The output variable type that results from each target variable type is given in the following table 124 Supported Programs R Output to R from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Integer int
135. he characters of all languages In Stat Transfer Version 10 all characters are represented internally in Unicode It is thus capable of handling strings in any language However many of the file formats that Stat Transfer supports were written in the days in which ASCII was the way of representing strings Thus when read they will not give Stat Transfer information on the code page that is in use and when they are written they have no place for Stat Transfer to store the code page that was used For some file formats the user will not need to worry about any of this Excel 97 and above for in stance stores characters in Unicode If you are going to Access or SAS Version 9 or above no con version will be necessary as both of these are Unicode aware Options Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 33 Your computer s operating system maintains a setting of the current working code page In most cases applications will use that information to encode characters in a consistent manner However if someone in Japan or Greece or Russia sends you a file you will need to tell Stat Transfer the encod ing that was used to write their files The options on this page provide a way for the user to specify when necessary the encoding that is present in an input file and the one that is desired in an output file Input Character Set In general unless you are sure of what you are doing you should leave this option at the default set
136. he file that is to contain the data list All of the input 64 The Command Processor Selecting Variables variables will be written one per line unless the parameter oc has been given If variable labels are available these will also be written as comments in the file The parameter oc the drop constants option is used if you wish to drop constant or missing vari ables from the variable list you are creating Once the file has been created you can use your favorite editor to delete the variables that are not to be used with the DROP or KEEP command Writing to the Screen If for some reason you wish to have the input variables listed on the screen use the VARS command without specifying an output file VARS filename Selecting Variables The Command Processor 65 Changing Output Variable Types The TYPES Command If you wish to change the output variable target type you do so using the TYPES command and a file vartypelist containing the selected input variables and their target output types See Page 20 for a discussion of output variable types used by Stat Transfer TYPES vartypelist Note that a symbol does not precede the file name For example types type lst will read the file TYPE LST for a list of variables to be used along with the target output type chosen Each variable along with the target output type must be on a separate line When you use the TYPES command you should not give any of the o
137. he output file using the input file specification it is important that you always specify the input file name before the output file name Default File Specifications Once the input file is chosen Stat Transfer will construct an output or destination file specification which has the same path and name as the input file but which has the standard extension appropriate for the output file type This name will appear in the fourth line the output File Specification of the Transfer dialog box Changing the Name If you do not wish to use the default name supplied by Stat Transfer but would like the destination file to have a different name or extension you can either use the Browse control to call up the Save As dialog box or you can type the name directly into the Transfer dialog box Changing the Directory the Most Recently Used List If you wish use a different drive and directory you can type in the directory directly However Stat Transfer maintains a most recently used list of the directories to which you have transferred files You can retrieve this list which will show the output file name that appears in the output File Speci fication edit box by clicking on the down arrow to the left of the output File Specification box Table Names for Access and ODBC Output Whenever you select either an Access file or an ODBC data source as output Stat Transfer will dis play a Table selection line below the output File Specification lin
138. hem untranslated or to have Stat Transfer warn you if there are spaces We do not recommend leaving spaces untranslated 42 The Stat Transfer User Interface Options Dialog Box Output file name rule for invalid characters This option tells Stat Transfer what to do when there are invalid characters in output file names Stat Transfer will by default translate characters that are invalid in file names into underscores You can instead choose to leave them as they are or you can have Stat Transfer issue a warning Output file name case You can choose how you would like Stat Transfer to handle case conversion in your file names The default is Smart case conversion in which filenames in mixed case are preserved and those in all upper are converted to lower In addition to this option you can choose to have Stat Transfer preserve the case of your file names convert them to lower case or convert them to upper case User Interface Options Value Labels Browser If your input file has value labels you can display them for each variable on the Variables dialog box by checking this option You can choose to have the value labels displayed in a Vertical area just to the right of the variable names or in a Horizontal area below the the variable names The de fault is to display the value labels in a horizontal box below the variable names File History Length Stat Transfer stores a history of the files that you have read for each In
139. hould auto matically sense it or whether Stat Transfer should assign variable names e The character that is used to enclose string fields in the input data e The number of lines Stat Transfer will read to determine each type of variable present By de fault the entire data set is read e What character is read as missing value e The decimal point and thousands separator in your data e A scan format to determine whether a given field is a date time or a date time The formats for dates times and date times are then used to actually read the data The default formats will usually read these fields but formats for unusual fields can be specified e A century changeover year If you are reading two digit years you can use this option to con trol how they are read The default for the option is 20 All of the user interface options available for reading ASCII files are set in the Options dialog box in the sections Date Time Formats Reading and ASCII Text File Read Options and are discussed on Page 31 and Page 35 The command processor options can be found on Page 68 in the section Setting Options with the Set Command If you wish to have more flexibility in reading delimited files you can describe the file with a Schema file see Page 93 Writing ASCII Files When writing ASCII delimited files you can specify e The character that will be used as the delimiter in each record commas tabs spaces or semi
140. ice for transferring the data into output formats that support value labels such as SPSS Stata or SAS String variable If you choose String Variables Stat Transfer will match the numeric variable to its string equivalent and write the string into your output dataset Options Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 41 Write version one string missing If you are using Version One of R check this option and the appropriate value will be written for null or missing strings If you are using a later version of R leave this unchecked Output Options 1 SAS Data Representation Stat Transfer can write SAS files in formats that are appropriate for using with SAS on a variety of different platforms You can control the kind of SAS file you write by using this option The available formats are equivalent to SAS OUTREP values for the various platforms The default representation is Windows which is appropriate for 32 bit Windows platforms Stata Version With the option Stata Version you select the version you wish to use for your chosen Stata output type You cannot select an output version lower than seven if you have chosen to write Stata SE out put Note that the type of Stata file is chosen in the Transfer dialog box For Version 7 and higher Stata comes in two flavors Standard Stata and Stata SE or Special Edition These differ in their limits for the number of output variables and the maximum permitted length of
141. ile contains factors you can choose to have these written to an output file as the numeric values and their value labels or you can write them as strings This op tion is controlled in the R and S Plus Options section of the Options dialog box If you are going to a package such a Stata or SPSS that supports value labels the first option is more appropriate Byte Order S PLUS writes out its data in the native format of the machine on which it is running This means that both the byte order and the width of numbers can vary between machines On input Stat Trans fer will automatically sense the byte order of the machine that wrote the file Writing S PLUS files On output Stat Transfer writes a S PLUS dataframe If your input data set does not have a variable named rownames Stat Transfer will create an extra variable containing the case number stored as an integer variable and named rownames You can choose whether you want to write out a file with low to high byte order appropriate for such processors as Intel or DEC or a file with high to low byte order for such processors as SPARC HP or Motorola If you are using the Windows version of S PLUS select Intel low to high byte order on output Missing Data S PLUS supports missing values On input missing values are converted to the internal missing value in Stat Transfer On output missing values are converted to the value appropriate for each variable type Output
142. ions and the succeeding i th case is drawn with a probability of sample_size hits total_observations 1 For example if you had a data set of 1000 cases and wished for a random sample of 25 cases you would specify where samp _fixed 25 1000 Systematic Random Samples Finally a third function samp_syst interval performs a systematic sample of every n th case after a random start For instance to take every 6 th case use where samp syst 6 Sampling Subsets of the Input Data Expressions are evaluated from left to right You can thus sample from a subset of your cases by subsetting them first and then sampling For example to take a random half of high school graduates use where schooling gt 12 amp samp _rand 5 Sampling Seed and Reproducible Samples The random number generator that provides the basis of these sampling routines is rand_port in Jerry Dwyer Quick and Portable Random Number Generators C Users Journal June 1995 pp 33 44 By default it is seeded using a permutation of the time of day and will yield a different sam ple on each run If you need a reproducible sample you can generate it by using the same seed each time The seed is entered in the General Options of the Options dialog box and should be a positive integer in the range of 1 through 2 147 483 646 Observations Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 27 Options Dialog Box co StaVTransfer as
143. ite If you have a problem that you cannot resolve by these methods the best way to seek help is by email at support circlesys com Please be sure to send us the exact version of your software from the About tab describe your problem thoroughly and include any error messages you encountered You can also seek support by using the Log tab This method is particularly helpful if you think you have found a bug in Stat Transfer because it is possible to automatically send us a compressed and encrypted copy of the input file that was causing you problems as well as a complete description of your environment and your own description of the problem It is always good to make sure you are running the latest version of Stat Transfer Go to the About tab and look up the exact version of Stat Transfer that you are using You can also check for updates from here Resources 9 The Stat Transfer User Interface The User Interface Version 10 of Stat Transfer has a standard user interface and is extremely simple to use If you are going to transfer all of the variables and cases in a file with default output types then you can run the transfer from a single dialog box the Transfer dialog box You need only specify the input and output file names If you wish to transfer specific variables or cases or change output types you are guided by addi tional dialog boxes Starting Stat Transfer On Windows the installation procedure will ins
144. ith our license agreement Q How do I re install Stat Tranfer after a disk crash A Itis simplest to download the latest release from our website install it and then re activate it with the code you obtained from your disk envelope or original email from our sales department If you cannot find your activation code please send us an e mail giving us as much detail as possible about your version and how where and when you purchased Stat Transfer and we will see if we can send you an activation code Q How do I move my copy of Stat Transfer from one computer to another A Simply re install the software either from your disk or from our website Then use your activa tion code to activate the program See the Activation section Page 7 Q Why can t I buy a simultaneous use license for Stat Transfer A The problem is that it takes so little time to do so much work with Stat Transfer If we allowed simultaneous use one copy could cover a very large workgroup and we would not make enough to develop the next version To figure out how many users you have in your workgroup count the num ber of people who are likely to use Stat Transfer in a one year period and buy enough licenses to cover that number On unix for those who do not want to bother with this we have single machine licenses that will cover an unlimited number of users on a single machine Q Can I use Stat Transfer in my office and also on my laptop at h
145. l be executed as the command processor starts up Available Options The following options are available with the SET command Case does not matter when they are entered Most of these options have already been discussed in the sections on the various options set in the Options dialog box of the user interface Go to the sections given by the headings below The options marked with asterisks are discussed after the list of available options SET Command Options General Options NUMERIC NAMES Y N Write new numeric variable names PRESERVE LABEL SETS Y N Preserve variable label tags and grouping where possible SAMP SEED Auto Number Seed for sampling functions VAR CASE CI lower preserve mixed Variable case conversion rule for case insensitive output file preserve always upper VAR CASE CS lower preserve mixed Variable case conversion rule for case sensitive output file preserve always upper 68 The Command Processor Setting Options with the SET Command WRITE OLD VER Y N or Number N DROP KEEP Clear Save BYTE ORDER HL LH User Missing Values USER MISS All First None MAP USER MISS Y N MAP MISS WITH LABS Y N Date Time Formats Reading DATE FMT READ Format string TIME FMT READ Format string DATETIME FMT READ Format string DATE SCAN FMT Format string CENTURY CUTOFF Value Date Time Formats Writing DATE FMT WRITE Format string TIME FMT WRITE Format string DATETIME FMT WRITE For
146. l effectively combine the sheets into one large input file dropping the field names if necessary on the second and higher sheets You will end up with the data from all of your worksheet pages in a single output file Output Fieldname Row This check box controls whether or not your field names will be written as the first row of the output worksheet By default it is checked JMP Options Write value labels to JMP files If this option is checked Stat Transfer will write value labels to the output JMP file Use custom properties as variable labels JMP allows users to assign custom text strings to columns Check this box if you would like Stat Transfer to use that text as value labels for your variables R and S PLUS Options Convert R and S Plus factors Both R and S plus have a type known as a factor This consists of an ordered set of zero based numbers 0 n with a corresponding set of alphanumeric labels For instance a factor representing yes and no survey responses could be represented by a vector of zeros and ones and a vector of strings yes and no where 0 yes and 1 no Since factors have no direct analog in other statistical systems you can choose to represent them in one of two ways Numeric variables with labeled values If you choose Numeric variables with labeled values Stat Transfer will create a value label set and map it onto the numeric values This is an appropriate cho
147. last row of the specified range will also be returned Note that because this option generally only applies to specific worksheets and because Stat Transfer s de faults usually work fine the setting is not saved between sessions Field Name Row By default Stat Transfer will attempt to autosense whether or not the data in the first non blank row or the first row of a specified range are variable names or the first row of data It does so by look ing for at least one column in which there is a string in the first row and a number in the second If this behavior is inappropriate for your worksheet for example if you have only string data you can override it Note that the setting is not saved between sessions You can specify one of the following options from the Field Name Row drop down menu AutoSense The default behavior First Non Blank Row This option will take the values in the first non blank row as the field names even if there is no change to a numeric type in the second row No Names in Worksheet This option will treat the first non blank row as data Stat Transfer will assign variable names coll through coln Specify Row Explicitly This option will take the field names from a specified row If you se lect Specify Row Explicitly from the drop down menu then the Row line will become active and you must enter a row Blank Rows This option menu is used when Autosense is chosen for the Data Range option
148. le in the Automatic Transfer Logging section of the Options dialog box By default the log file will go to the same directory as your output file and will be appended to an ex isting log file Options in the Automatic Transfer Logging section allow you can change the name and whether or not an existing file is overwritten 18 The Stat Transfer User Interface Transfer Dialog Box Variables Dialog Box c gt Stat Transfer Oo x Transfer Variables Observations Options Run Program Log About m Variable names m Variable Label Labor Force Status E fe Target Type Quick Variable Selector Sting wae Keep Drop GoTo C Int Value labels for WRKSTA T r Quick Type Changer 0 NAP Long 1 Working fulltime l 2 Working parttime Float 3 Temp not working sy 4 Unempl laid off Bye _Change 5 Retired C Double 6 School woon e 7 Keeping house C Date Target Type Optimizer 8 Other AF INA Optimize 3 NA C Date Time Optimize Time F Use Doubles T Drop Constants Help 49 variables selected Variable Selection Automatic Selection of All Variables in the Data Set When the input file has been specified in the Transfer dialog box by default Stat Transfer selects all of the variables for transfer A message will appear in the Transfer dialog box below the input File Specification line telling you that all of the variables in the data set have been selec
149. letter of the value label will be used as the missing value For instance if the value 0 is a user missing value and is labeled as inapplica ble it will be mapped to 1 This mapping will only occur for missing values that are computed with an equal operator If there is no label or if the missing letter has already been used the missing value will then be mapped sequentially to a c Since current versions of Stata and SAS support the labeling of missing values this option is less use ful If you have value labels it is best to keep it unchecked and rely on the value labels to differenti ate your values Note that we believe these options are potentially dangerous To avoid the chance of users checking one of these options and then forgetting about it Stat Transfer does not save the settings when op tions are automatically saved at the end of a session 30 The Stat Transfer User Interface Options Dialog Box Date Time Formats Reading You can control how Stat Transfer reads dates and time In most cases users will not need to change the default settings in order to read date and time variables However if you do need to do so you provide a general scanning input format in the Scan edit box which is used when an ASCII file is opened for reading The input format given in Scan is used in the initial look at the file which will determine variable types and also specific formats for dates times
150. ll SAS missing values are converted to a single internal missing value in Stat Transfer Output When either an ASCII file or a Stata file with extended missing values is transferred to a SAS file the input missing values will transfer to the equivalent ones in the SAS output file For input files that support user missing values SPSS and OSIRIS the options User Missing Value and Map to extended a z missing in the User Missing Values section of the Options dialog box can be used to map selected user missing values to extended missing values in the SAS output file For all other input file formats on output to SAS missing values are set to the SAS standard missing value Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to SAS Data Files from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte SAS Number width three bytes int SAS Number width four bytes long SAS Number width six bytes float SAS Number width eight bytes double SAS Number width eight bytes string SAS Character variable maximum length of 200 bytes date SAS Serial Date Number time SAS Time number of seconds since midnight date time SAS Datetime in seconds SAS Data Files Supported Programs 127 SAS Value Labels Stat Transfer supports the import and export of SAS value labels Reading SAS Value Labels SAS unlike other
151. ll values in a given matrix are of a single type usually double precision although particularly large matrices may be written out by Matlab in integer format when this is possible Strings are not supported in Matlab files Stat Transfer does not read complex matrices Writing Matlab Files On output Stat Transfer writes files that can be read by any version of Matlab Stat Transfer always writes Matlab files in double precision Stat Transfer does not write complex matrices By default Stat Transfer will write dates times or datetime variables into Matlab as numbers Dates are serial date numbers with a base of Jan 1 0000 Times are fractions of the day and date time values are the sum of these two components You will need to use internal Matlab functions to turn these numbers into something readable On the other hand if you are not planning to do any computations on your dates you can check the option Write Matlab Date Time as strings in the Output Options 1 section of the Options dialog box and Stat Transfer will write your date values as formatted strings in your Matlab file Missing Data Matlab supports missing values Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table 112 Supported Programs Matlab Files Output to Matlab from Stat Transfer Target Type int long float double Output Type Double date Date written out
152. lt behavior can be changed with the User Missing Values selection of the Options dialog box see Page 30 By default when the option Map to extended a z missing is left unchecked all user missing val ues that are selected according the options Use All Use First Use none will go to a single missing value which will then be converted to the system missing value in the target package in SAS or Stata for example If the option Map to extended a z missing is checked user missing values will be mapped if pos sible to extended missing values in formats that support them SAS ASCH or Stata If possible the first letter of the value label will be used as the missing value For instance if the value 0 is a user missing value and is labeled as inapplicable it will be mapped to 1 This map ping will only occur for missing values that are computed with an equal operator If there is no label or if the missing letter has already been used the missing value will be mapped c 3 sequentially to a c On output to SPSS missing values are set to the SPSS system missing value SPSS Data Files Supported Programs 137 Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to SPSS Data Files from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte int long float double Number date time dat
153. lumn 22 and the nu meric variable housesat as having a width of one in column 23 Variable Range If you have adjacent variables in a record with the same widths and types and with names of the form variablen you can use a range to specify them in the VARIABLES command For example scalel to scalelO 24 43 will expand to 10 variables named scale1 scale scale10 each of width 2 and located starting in column 24 As is the case with using variable lists if the number of variables does not give an integer when di vided into the width specified then an error is returned Variable Specifications for Delimited Data For delimited input data the required elements after the VARIABLES command are a list of variable names followed by their variable types in parentheses For example a SCHEMA file might contain the following VARIABLES command Variables ID A4 Age F Name A16 Sex F2 Wage F10 2 Birthdte Y m d Variable names must begin with a letter or an underscore If they have embedded spaces not recom mended they must be enclosed by single or double quotes The variable type is always necessary for delimited data String variables are indicated by the letter A followed by a width The width specification is re quired 96 Supported Programs SCHEMA Files for ASCH Input Numeric data are indicated by the letter F A width is not required for numeric data but may be
154. ly It is useful if data values are delimited by one or more blanks or tabs The default for Combine adjacent blanks is off If you turn this option on you can select Spaces in which case multiple blanks are treated as one blank or you can select Spaces and tabs in which case multiple instances of tabs and blanks are converted to a single space Variable Names By default Stat Transfer will sense whether the first line of your input data set contains field names or data You may if you wish explicitly override this default AutoSense If this option is set to AutoSense Stat Transfer will look at the first and second rows of data If there is a change from a string to a number for one or more variables between these rows Stat Transfer will use the first row as the field names This will fail if your first row contains the field names and all of your variables are of the string type In that case you should choose one of the fol lowing two options First Row When this option is set to First Row Stat Transfer uses the data found in your first row as the field names Make Up When this option is set to Make Up Stat Transfer treats the first row in your file as data and assigns the field names coll colm Numeric Missing Value It is possible to specify a string that will be interpreted as a missing value when Stat Transfer reads ASCII files For example your input data set may use the
155. m for the analysis of discrete choice data Standard Extension pj Reading NLOGIT Files NLOGIT has only a single data type consisting of double precision numbers Writing NLOGIT Files Stat Transfer enforces NLOGIT s 200 variable limit Character variables cannot be exported to NLOGIT since the program does not support them Missing Values NLOGIT recognizes missing values Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to NLOGIT from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type string Not exported byte int long float double date time datetime 116 Supported Programs NLOGIT Files Number ODBC Data Sources Stat Transfer can read or write data for any file type for which you have or can obtain an ODBC driver These include such relational databases as Oracle Sybase DB2 or Informix or flat file data bases such as Btrieve Standard extension none Reading and Writing ODBC Data Sources Depending on the driver you may need to configure your data source from the Windows control panel When connecting to an ODBC data source you may need to supply a password or other information If a particular data source requires such information you will be prompted automatically Note that for client server databases in particular some configuration and installation of database spe cific components ma
156. mand Input Files Specified Separately If input files are given with separate COPY commands that is without using wildcards then the de fault behavior is that you must give a KEEP or DROP variable selection statement before each COPY command This corresponds to the option Clear for DROP KEEP However if the same variables are to be transferred from each file you can specify that the same KEEP or DROP command apply to all input files that follow until another KEEP or DROP command is encountered To do so use the SET command set drop keep save Input Files Specified with Wildcards If the input files are specified with wildcards the default behavior is that the KEEP or DROP variable selection command you give before a COPY command applies to all of the files specified in that command Thus the default when files are specified with wildcards is Save If you set the DROP KEEP option to Clear then the variable selection statement will apply only to the first file All of the other files given by the wildcard specification will transfer all of their variables Note that the default changes depending on whether or not the input file specification contains wildcards The default is Clear for no wildcards and Save for wildcards Set Byte Order for S PLUS and SPSS Output Files BYTE ORDER HL LH By default Stat Transfer will write files in low high byte order for S PLUS and SPSS output files This i
157. mat string Encoding Options IN ENCODING OUT ENCODING System Other System Other Write older versions of output file Reset variable selection statement Set byte order for output SPSS and S PLUS files Honor user missing values Map user missing values Map user missing using first letter of variable label if possible Format for reading dates from ASCII files Format for reading times from ASCII files Format for reading date time from ASCH files Format for scanning ASCII files for dates and times Century cutoff for two digit years defaults to 20 Format for writing dates in ASCII files Format for writing times in ASCII files Format for writing date time in ASCII files Translate from this encoding when reading files Translate from this encoding when writing files If you choose to override the default behavior you can choose a different encoding by going to the user interface clicking on the Options tab and selecting Encoding Options First select the Region and then the Character Set The value in pa rentheses after the name of the character set is the value you should enter for Other ODBC Options ODBC NULL STRINGS Y N ODBC USE DATETIME Y N ODBC VARCHAR OVER CHAR Y N DB TABLE APPEND Y N ASCII Options Reading Use nulls for missing strings When possible use larger datetime type Use varchar if it has the same length as char Append to Access or ODBC database tables DELIMITER RD Autosense Comm
158. me of the data file the file with the dat extension If Stat Transfer can find the dht file in the same directory it will read the data file as a Gauss 89 file Ifno dht file is present the data file will be read as a Gauss 96 file Stat Transfer will read numeric data from integer single precision and double precision Gauss data sets Character data will only be read from double precision data sets Writing Gauss Files On output you can choose whether to write a Gauss 89 or Gauss 96 file If you choose to write a Gauss 89 file both of the Gauss files the data file and the header file will be written Stat Transfer will show the data file name with the dat extension in the output File Specification line However the header file will be created as well with a dht extension Stat Transfer writes double precision Gauss data sets Missing Data Gauss supports missing values Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to Gauss from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Double precision number int long float double string Character 8 byte maximum date MM DD YY format written as a character variable time Character date time written according to the ASCII format options currently in effect Gauss Files Supported Programs 107 HTML Tables Stat Transfer will write HTML tables for use in We
159. med survey dat_and placed in the same directory as the SCHEMA file then the FILE command would be omitted since Stat Transfer would find it without it being named in the FILE command Alternatively you could put the data in the same file as the SCHEMA and use the DATA command at the end of the SCHEMA but before your data to tell Stat Transfer to read your data from the same file starting in the line following the command SCHEMA Files for ASCH Input Supported Programs 99 dBASE Files and Compatibles Stat Transfer will read and write dBASE II and IV files and those from compatible systems such as Clipper or Alpha Four Obsolete dBASE II files can also be read Standard Extension dbf Reading dBASE Files All versions of dBASE files can have indices for key fields which are stored in separate files Stat Transfer ignores these indices and treats all files sequentially On input dBASE numeric data and character variables are converted in a straightforward manner Logical variables are converted to numbers True becomes 1 False becomes 0 Memo Fields cannot be converted and will not appear on the variable selection menu Deleted records are not transferred Writing dBASE Files Users should be aware that dBASE files are limited to 128 variables dBASE stores numeric data in fixed length character format It is thus not very suitable for numbers which vary widely in magnitude or which are either very large
160. meric Variable Names VN in the General Options sec tion of the Options dialog box Stat Transfer will create new variable names of the form V1 VN in stead of the default variable names This is chiefly useful when dealing with truncated names which often have little resemblance to the names you started with If your output system supports variable labels you may wish to use this option to assign numeric names for your variables You can then use the variable labels for description Because this option is likely to be useful only in special circumstances it reverts to the default be tween sessions of Stat Transfer Limitations on the Number of Variables Stat Transfer will check whether the number of variables that have been selected exceeds the maxi mum permitted by the target program and will inform you if too many variables have been selected Strings with Value Labels Both SAS and SPSS support the labeling of string variables Stat Transfer will now automatically transfer such value labels both to the internal file formats of SAS or SPSS and to the program files written by Stat Transfer to create fixed format ASCII files Internal Limitations The maximum width of an alphanumeric variable is 32 000 characters Variable names are limited internally to a maximum length of 255 characters Data are generally processed one case at a time so the number of cases is not limited Exceptions to this are the worksheets and file formats
161. mmand quit at the command line will return you to the Explorer You can edit a command file by right clicking then selecting edit Running Programs and Commands in Command Files Command files can contain commands to execute programs as well as Stat Transfer commands You can execute operating system commands and run other programs from the Stat Transfer com mand line by preceding the program name and arguments with any of the following dos shell or P For example dos del logfile dat del logfile dat These options will for example allow you to zip or unzip files with commands given to the Stat Transfer command processor in a command file A command file might contain the following set of commands unzip a SAS file pkunzip sasdata zip mysasl sd2 copy it to an SPSS file copy mysasl sd2 myspssl sav zip your new SPSS file pkzip myspssl zip myspssl sav delete the SPSS file del myspssl sav delete the SAS file del mysasl sd2 where indicates to the command processor that what follows is a comment and has been used instead of dos A sequence of command such as these can be entered directly at the Stat Transfer command prompt or stored in a command file for batch execution 76 The Command Processor Command Files ODBC Data Sources Generally the process of opening an ODBC data source for reading or writing requires information beyond a simple
162. modulus operator is also available the remainder after division by the operand following Selection Conditions If variable values consist of strings then when they contain blanks or characters such as they must be enclosed in double quotes Examples Examples of selection conditions given by WHERE expressions are where educ 12 amp rate gt 2 where incomel income2 famsize lt 20000 where incomel gt 20000 income2 gt 20000 where acct 2001 where name smith where dept sales auto loan Observations Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 25 Qo where id 2 0 which selects all even values of ID where rownum lt 200 which selects rows 1 199 Wildcards in Selection Conditions Wildcards or are available to select subgroups of string variables For example where account 3 where name mc name mac Note that when the wildcard is used it replaces a single character while the wildcard replaces an unspecified number of characters Thus the specification 3 will select account numbers of any length that have a three in the second place Comma Operator The comma operator is used to list different values of the same variable name that will be used as selection criteria It allows you to bypass potentially lengthy OR expressions when selecting lists of values For example the WHERE expression above can be more ea
163. n 4 What s New in Stat Transfer Installation Installing Stat Transfer on Windows System requirements e Microsoft Windows 2000 XP Vista or Windows 7 e Intel or AMD x86 processor e Memory 512MB RAM e 25 MB of free disk space e Atleast a 1024 768 display Installation To install Stat Transfer place the Stat Transfer CD ROM in your drive The setup program should start automatically If it does not then from the Start menu choose Run and then Browse Go to your CD ROM drive and select the setup file from the disk You will next be asked for the drive and directory in which to install Stat Transfer The default is c program files stattransfer10 If you accept this directory and it does not exist the installation pro gram will create it for you If you wish to install the program on another drive or in a directory with a different name you can do so by clicking on Browse and then entering the drive and directory By default the installation program will install not only the base Stat Transfer application but also the Microsoft components that are necessary to support ODBC and Microsoft Access You will also have the option of installing software to read versions of Statistica higher than six Because the Statistica components occupy ar leastt 10MB of disk space do not install them if you think you will not need them If you decide later that you would like to use any of the components that you have not installed you can
164. n change this behavior by entering a different value in the Filename field You can use the following macros Options Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 45 ipath The path including the drive on Windows of the input data file iname The name without the extension of the input data file opath The path including the drive on Windows of the output data file oname The name without the extension of the output data file If log file exists This option controls what happens if the log file exists in the location that you have specified The possible values are Prompt before overwriting Overwrite without asking Append to existing log The last option Append to existing log is the default Restoring and Saving Options Restore Default The Restore Default button resets all of the options to their default values Restore Saved The Restore Saved button replaces the currently selected options in the dialog boxes with those stored the last time the options were saved either from an explicit save with the Save button or from your last exit from Stat Transfer Save The Save button saves all of the current options with the exception of the Write New Numeric Variable Name option the User Missing Value selections and the options for Input Worksheets Data Range and Input Worksheets Field Name Row This is the same behavior that occurs when you quit a Stat Transfer session 46 The Stat Transfer User Inter
165. n that give the names of the variables The data then begins in the next row However variable labels may be in dif ferent rows or not present at all You have several options to specify what part of an input worksheet to read and how to read variable names Data Range You can choose different ranges to be read in input worksheets by using the drop down menu for Data Range in the Worksheets section of the Options dialog box or using the SET command WKS DATA RANGE If you use Autosense the default Stat Transfer will read to the first non blank cell and use that as the upper left corner of the data range It will then read data until it encounters an entirely blank line This is the default behavior You can change the behavior with respect to blank rows by using the Blank Rows option Rather than have Stat Transfer automatically sense the number of rows to be read you can use the other options for Data Range to specify a range either by giving a named range or by giving explicit coordinates When a range has been specified Stat Transfer s treatment of entirely blank rows will also be over ridden They will be returned in your output data and in addition blank rows at the end of the worksheet through the last row of the specified range will also be returned Determining Variable Names By default Stat Transfer will attempt to determine whether or not the data in the first non blank row or the first row of a specified range ar
166. n writing within 90 days of purchase a substantial defect in the software s performance Circle Systems will attempt to correct it or at its option authorize a refund of the amount you originally paid for the software If you return faulty media or a printed user manual during this period along with a dated proof of purchase Circle Systems will replace it free of charge You must insure items being returned since Circle Systems does not accept the risk of loss or damage in transit THE WARRANTIES AND REMEDIES SET FORTH ABOVE ARE EXCLUSIVE AND IN PLACE OF ALL OTHERS ORAL OR WRITTEN EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CIRCLE SYSTEMS DOES NOT AND CANNOT WARRANT THE PERFORMANCE OR RESULTS YOU MAY OBTAIN USING THE SOFTWARE EXCEPT FOR THE FOREGOING LIMITED WARRANTY AND REMEDIES AND FOR ANY WARRANTY CONDITION REPRESENTATION OR TERM TO THE EXTENT TO WHICH IT CANNOT OR MAY NOT BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED BY LAW APPLICABLE TO YOU IN YOUR JURISDICTION CIRCLE SYSTEMS MAKES NO WARRANTIES REPRESENTATIONS OR CONDITIONS EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WITH RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE MEDIA OR USER MANUAL INCLUDING THEIR MERCHANTABILITY SATISFACTORY QUALITY NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS INTEGRATION OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE CIRCLE SYSTEMS WILL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT INDIRECT SPECIAL INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR MANUAL EVEN IF CIRCLE SYSTEMS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
167. name and arguments with any of the following dos shell or P For example shell del logfile dat dos del logfile dat del logfile You might use the following command which allows you to unzip a file with a command given to Stat Transfer unzip sasdata zip mysasl sd2 oy where has been used instead of dos or shell A sequence of commands can be entered directly at the Stat Transfer prompt or stored in a file for batch execution Quit You can terminate your Stat Transfer session by typing quit or q Other Available Command Processor Commands The Command Processor 73 Command Processor Help Online Help You can reach online help from the Stat Transfer command line by typing help To return to the command line close the HELP screen Help in the Command Processor You can issue the following commands to get help without leaving the command processor help commands help copy help formats help running help set help set all help set general help set date help set sas help set ascii help set worksheet To get a list of the available commands type help help Logging Stat Transfer Sessions You can log your transfer session to a file by typing LOG USING filename where filename is the name of the log file All of the commands that you enter and all messages from Stat Transfer will be written to the file 74 The Command Proce
168. nd older xBASE versions such as Clipper and dBASE II All other formats are case insensitive Options Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 29 User Missing Values User Missing Values You have some control over the way missing values are treated for input files containing more than one type At present the User Missing Values options apply to SPSS files both Data and Portable and OSIRIS The options are selected with the buttons Use All Use First or Use None Some statistical systems distinguish between system missing such as the result of a divide by zero and user missing a numeric value which is defined as a missing value by the user Further particu larly in survey research distinctions are made between user defined missing values that represent structurally missing data such as answers to pregnancy history questions from male respondents and those that represent categories of non response or simply the failure of the interviewer to properly collect the data Conventionally zero is used to represent inapplicable missing values and higher numbers are used to represent such responses as don t know refused and not ascertained While inapplicable data is analytically equivalent to system missing there can be legitimate research interest in the patterns of non response represented by the other categories of missing data Use All By default when multiple missing values are allowed
169. ns for Database Table Output Sometimes when both the input and the output file require a table or subfile specification the T switch can be ambiguous In that case you can modify the switch with a gt or lt The parameter T gt means the input table specification and T gt means the output table specification For example to transfer sheet 3 of an Excel file to an Access table named cities you could write copy in xls out mdb T lt sheet3 T gt cities Wildcard Operators The wildcard operators and allow you to move more than one input Access data source table with a single command For example suppose the Access data source company mdb consists of two tables sales and marketing Then copy company mdb dept xls t will move each table in company mdb to a separate Excel worksheet The output worksheet names will be the root name of the output file that given in the COPY command with the table names ap pended dept_sales xls and dept_marketing xls Wildcards in the file name can be mixed with wildcards in the Table parameter For example to transfer all tables in all of the Access files in the directory indata and write them out in Stata format you would use copy indata mdb outdata dta t 58 The Command Processor Options Set by Parameters after COPY Specifying Worksheet Ranges Worksheet ranges can be specified with a parameter that follows the COPY command R page
170. ome A Yes that is explicitly permitted by our license If you are the primary user of the software you can install it on multiple machines However more than one user can not use the software on more than one machine 148 Frequently Asked Questions ODBC Data Sources Q Why can t I find my database in the list of ODBC sources A In order for a data source to appear in the list you must first have installed a driver for the partic ular database system and then you must have configured the driver to point to your database Drivers are usually supplied by your database vendor and particularly if you are using a client server database you must make sure that you have installed proper components for your particular worksta tion and network A data source in ODBC parlance is a driver configured to point to a particular database For in stance you might have a driver for Oracle data and two Oracle data sources one for each of two clin ical trials you are analyzing You can configure an ODBC driver to connect to a particular database by running the ODBC driver manager from the Windows Control Panel Only properly configured data sources will appear in Stat Transfers lists of available data sources Q Ican see my data source on Stat Transfer s list but I encounter errors when I try to connect to it A There are many possible causes for this problem Your ODBC driver may not be properly in stalled or configured for your network
171. ompt just as they are from the st prompt The Copy Command The Command Processor 53 Combining Files If you wish to combine multiple input files into a single output file use the COMBINE command in stead of the COPY command COMBINE ex filename ex2 f filename where ex are the input files to be combined all in the same directory filename ex2 is the output file and ex and ex2 are standard extensions used to specify the file types The parameter f filename is described below The input files will be concatenated into one output file The syntax for this command is similar to that of the COPY command using wildcards except that the output file specification does not contain a wildcard The files to be combined do not need to have identical variables and the variables do not need to be in the same order By default the first file in alphabetical order becomes the reference file and the variables in this file and their characteristics determine the structure of the output file The variables in succeeding files are then matched to the first file If a file does not have a variable with a matching name or the type of the variable does not match it will not be included in the output The switch f allows you to specify which file will be used as the reference file For example if you have file1 file2 and file3 as input and you want to use file3 instead of fileI as the reference you would specify ffil
172. on dat The complete name and path of the output ASCII data file will be encoded in the Schema file The data file and Schema file can be read back by Stat Transfer This is useful for instance if you want to add variable labels value labels and or missing values to data stored in a file format that does not support these features For instance you could write the contents of an Excel spreadsheet to a fixed format ASCII file and then edit the contents of the Schema to add missing values or value labels that could then be trans ferred to SPSS SAS or Stata XXX Program ASCII Data File The final three selections SPSS Program ASCII Data File SAS Program ASCII Data File Stata Program ASCII Data File will each write a fixed format ASCH file along with a single program that will allow the file to be read into SAS SPSS or Stata In addition for the selection Stata Program ASCII Data File a dictionary file will be written for Stata The program file name will appear in the output File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box Stat Transfer constructs the output file specification by using the same drive Windows directory and name as the input file and appending the file extensions sas sps or do The output file itself will have the same name as the input and program files but with the extension dat If a Stata pro gram file has been selected the dictionary file will have the same name as the input and program
173. on string in a file and then use the lt operator with a DBR or DBW command in a command file Encrypting Connection Strings Because the connection string may contain your password you may not want it written to unpro tected files You can encrypt and decrypt the stored value of any parameter by adding a pound sign to the gt or lt operators For example dbr connstr gt connect str writes the connection string in encrypted format and dbr connstr lt connect str retrieves and decrypts the connection string 78 The Command Processor ODBC Data Sources Variable Naming and Limits This section contains general information about Stat Transfer s handling of variables and about some general program limitations Specific information for each of the supported file formats is given in the next section Variable Names Stat Transfer will by default ensure that variable names are legal in the target data set and are unique It does this by adding special characters when needed changing case where appropriate sub stituting underscores or another legal character for invalid characters and by truncating variable names to an acceptable length It then eliminates duplicates created by this process by appending a number to the end of the second and higher instances of duplicate variable names The original variable names will if possible be retained as variable labels If you check the option Write New Nu
174. ond record You must specify as many records as are present but you need not define fields on each record Variable Specification for Fixed Format Data For fixed format input the required elements after the VARIABLES command are a list of variable names followed by their column locations and for non numeric variables the variable type in paren theses Variable names must begin with a letter or an underscore If they have embedded spaces not rec ommended they must be enclosed by single or double quotes The column locations begin with column one The variable type when necessary is given in paren theses after the column location For example a SCHEMA file might contain the following VARIABLES command Variables ID 1 Age 6 Name 8 Sex 21 Birthdte d m Y The type is not necessary when the variable type is numeric String variables are designated by the letter A and for dates and times you should use a Stat Transfer date input format as documented in the ASCII options given on Page 31 For dates in the format 10 MAY 1950 for example you would use Yod Yom Y the example above Note that different formats can be used for different date and time variables Numeric variables can be also be specified with a starting column location and a format giving the variable width and an optional number of implied decimal places In this case the ending column location is not necessary The format is given in parentheses
175. onumberchar When a number precedes the specification character char it specifies the field width to be used The next number characters in the input string are scanned for the specified date or time delimchar If there is a colon and any single character delim preceding the specification charac ter char then the field to be read is taken to be all the characters up to but not including the given de limiter character delim The delimiter itself is not scanned or skipped by the format and therefore must be entered explicitly in the input format or explicitly skipped Note that the modifier delim need not be used routinely since numeric and alpha formats will automatically stop reading when they reach a delimiter The characters used to create the input formats are listed below Anything to be read from the input character string that is not in the list below such as commas or other delimiters must be given explic itly in the input format White space spaces tabs carriage returns and so on is ignored in the input format string c skip a single character see also w Ne skip N characters c skip the rest of the input string d input day of the month H input hour m input month as integer or as alpha string If alpha string case does not matter and any substring of a month that distinguishes it from the other months will be accepted M input minute n input milliseconds Options Dialog Box The Stat Transfer
176. option Autosize Column Names The columns in the data viewer are sized to accommodate the width of the data By checking this box you can have the columns sized to accommodate the variable names Data Viewer Font You can use this option to control the font that is used in the data viewer Note that if you are dis playing international character sets you should choose a Unicode Font or at the very least a font that is capable of displaying the characters that are present in your data Stat Transfer Program Generation These options control the generation of command processor programs by the Stat Transfer user inter face whether automatically at the end of each transfer or manually when the Save Program button is pressed by the user The programs will contain all options that are necessary to completely reproduce the transfer and are useful not only to re run your transfer in the future but also together with the log files as documen tation of your work The programs can be re run by opening them in the Run Program dialog box or by running them directly from the operating system or the command processor itself Automatically generate command processor program If this option is checked a program will be generated at the conclusion of each transfer operation This program will contain all of the settings that are necessary to reproduce your transfer operation If you would like a program to be generated after each transfer check
177. or very small When Stat Transfer is transferring data from a system in which the width and number of decimal places are known it uses that information to set the format of each field in the output dBASE files For systems such as SYSTAT in which this information is not recorded in the file Stat Transfer sets the formats based on the target type of the variable Missing Data dBASE does not directly support missing values On input to Stat Transfer blanks in an dBASE file are interpreted as missing values Ifa data set is being transferred to an dBASE file format missing values in the input files are set to blank in the dBASE file Blanks are interpreted as zero by dBASE Many other programs including Stat Transfer interpret these blanks as missing Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table 100 Supported Programs dBASE Files and Compatibles Output to dBASE from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Number width 4 0 decimal places int Number width 6 0 decimal places long Number width 11 0 decimal places dBASE III float Number double width 16 decimal places taken from input data If decimal places unknown set to 4 dBASE IV float Float double width 16 string Character date Date time Character date time written according to the ASCII format options currently in effect
178. ot be written in the first row of delimited ASCII output files Generated Programs and Schemas Write complete paths This option is used when generating programs to accompany fixed format ASCII files When Write complete paths is checked the complete path specification will be written into the programs for the output types SAS Program Data File SPSS Program Data File and Stata Program Data File This option is checked by default The option Write complete paths is useful if you are going to read in the program and accompany ing ASCII data on your own machine However if you are going to store your data and program archivally or send it to another user it is best to leave this option unchecked so that only the default directory and the file name are written This allows the program to be more easily moved to another machine since it can be executed by set ting the default directory rather than editing the program Shorten names and labels for older versions If this option is left unchecked the default programs will be written for the latest version of SAS SPSS and Stata using the longest possible variable names and labels On the other hand if the option Shorten names and labels for older versions is checked variable names will be truncated to a width of eight characters if necessary and labels will be suitable for older versions of the software Use this option if you want to maximize compatibility
179. ou have a Windows SAS catalog file containing formats and wish to read them See Page 38 If this option is checked the entry ipathY catalog sas7bcat will automatically appear on the SAS catalog name line This instructs Stat Transfer to look for a file named formats sas7bcat in the same directory as your data file You can change the path if your file is in a different location Read from a catalog in CPORT library Check this option if you have your formats in a CPORT catalog If this option is checked the entry ipathY Y oiname stc will automatically appear on the CPORT library name line This instructs Stat Transfer to look for a file with the name with extension stc and directory of your input file since you will most probably be reading your formats from the same file as the data If you are reading formats and data from separate files then you can give the name of the file on this line You can type in a complete file specification or you can use the macros below as part of the file specification Sipaths The path including the directory of the input file siname s The name without the extension of the input file Joiext The extension without the dot of the input file 128 Supported Programs SAS Value Labels If your formats are in a member with the default name formats you need not specify anything more If not uncheck the Use default catalog name box and press the Read Library button You will then be able
180. ou should just leave missing cells blank You can also represent numeric missing data with a period Missing data for strings can be represented by an empty string entered with a single quote However blanks work just as well as any of these alternatives If your worksheets already use a specific string to represent missing you can tell Stat Transfer to use that string as a missing value by setting the Numeric Missing Value string in Worksheet options Q I have variable names in the first row of my worksheet but Stat Transfer doesn t use them It makes up names like coll and col2 How can I solve this problem A Stat Transfer tries to automatically sense whether you have variable name in your worksheet by looking for a change from a string type to a numeric type between the first and second rows of your worksheet If all of your variables are string variables this condition will not be met To solve this problem simply go to the Field Name Row Worsheet option and change AutoSense to First Non Blank Row Frequently Asked Questions 151 A Access databases appending tables output table names selecting tables specifying tables specifying tables with wildcards transferring tables Activation Alphanumeric variables width Arithmetic operations in WHERE ASCII files date time format options Delimited fixed format programs for read options Schema file write options ASCII input SAS SPSS Stata Schema file ASCII output gene
181. part of the file specification If your formats are in a dataset with the default name sas_fmts you need not specify anything more If not uncheck the Use default catalog name box and press the Read Library button You will then be able to select the dataset that contains your formats Read from a SAS Transport file Choose this option if your formats are in a dataset in a SAS Transport file produced by PROC FORMAT If this option is checked the entry ipath oiname tpt will automatically appear on the Trans port library name line This instructs Stat Transfer to look for a file with the name with extension pt and directory of your input file since you will most probably be reading your formats from the same file as the data If you are reading formats and data from separate files then you can give the name of the file on this line You can type in a complete file specification or you can use the macros above as part of the file specification If your formats are in a subfile with the default name sas_fmts you need not specify anything more If not uncheck the Use default member name box and press the Read Library button You will then be able to select the subfile that contains your formats Setting the Appropriate Options with the Command Processor Interface SET commands are used to choose whether and how formats are to be read See the section SAS Value Labels Reading in the Available Options section of the command pro
182. pe Stat Transfer can automatically determine whether it can be represented by a float instead of a double without a loss of information Information on the maximum length of string variables is also accumulated so that these can be stored in variables of the smallest possible length In versions of Stat Transfer prior to Version 10 an option Automatically Optimize Target Types existed allowing the user to choose whether or not to optimize Starting in Version 10 automatic op timization of target types will always be performed unless the file has no string variables or the out put format does not require it This will cause very little difference in Stat Transfer s performance It Variables Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 21 will simply take a little longer usually a few seconds to transfer your data as Stat Transfer has to read it twice However with automatic optimization you are assured that you will never lose preci sion in your transfer and you will never have any invalid strings if you are converting between character sets In almost all cases it is appropriate to accept the output types that Stat Transfer chooses However there are times that you may wish to override these defaults and set the output types yourself Optimization by default takes place during a transfer The Optimize button is used to optimize man ually before the transfer This allows you to see the target types that Stat Transfer has chosen for
183. pecification line If your files are named using the standard file extensions for Stat Transfer given on the next page you will ordinarily use the Browse control to select a file When you click on Browse a standard File Open dialog box will open To select the input file first make sure that the path is the correct ones for your input file If not change to the correct one Next you need to select the correct file Note that a wildcard file specification ext has been cre ated for the File Name entry where ex is the Stat Transfer standard extension for the type of input data file you have selected Transfer Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 11 All of the files in the current directory with this extension will appear in a list box below the File Name line Either use this list and click on the name of the file you wish to use or type the name on the File Name line The Button If you click on the button beside the File Specification line you can obtain information on the file type currently displayed 12 The Stat Transfer User Interface Standard File Extensions 1 2 3 Access ASCII Delimited ASCII Delimited with Schema ASCII Fixed Format dBASE and compatibles Epi Info Excel FoxPro Gauss HTML JMP LIMDEP Matlab Mineset Minitab NLOGIT ODBC OSIRIS Paradox Quattro Pro R SAS for Windows and OS 2 SAS for the Macintosh and Unix SAS CPORT SAS Transpo
184. ptimization parameters o of oc or ofc with the COPY command The VARS command which is used to create the file vartypelist is discussed below TYPES CLEAR Command When a TYPES command has been given it will be used with all succeeding COPY commands until anew TYPES command is given or until the following command is entered TYPES CLEAR The VARS Command The VARS command given at the Stat Transfer prompt with appropriate options can be used to write a file giving the output variable types assigned by Stat Transfer as well as variable names and labels VARS filename vartypelist t o f c where filename is the name of the input file and vartypelist is the name of the file that is to contain the variable list with variable types All of the input variables will be written unless the parameter oc has been given They will be written one per line and if variable labels are available these will also be written as comments in the file The parameters t and o must be given The parameter t will write out the target output type for each input variable while the parameter o optimizes the output variable types The of oc and ofc parameters will select optimized types with the float and drop constants options before writing the variable list Once the file has been created you can use any editor to delete the variables that are not to be trans
185. put File Type You can control the number of files that are stored with this option The default is ten specifications for each file type Add Time and Date to log messages If this is checked the time and date will be written to each line of your log Clear Log before opening input file By default the messages that are written to the Log dialog box are cleared when a new file is opened You can override this behavior and save all messages by unchecking this box Note that if you are concerned with permanently documenting your transfer activities you should use the Automatic Transfer Logging option that will automatically write a log to disk for each transfer Stat Transfer GUI font This controls the font that is used in the Stat Transfer user interface GUI It will be dependent on your operating system You can use the Choose Font button to call up a dialog box that will allow you to choose a different font After you make your selection you will need to close and then restart Stat Transfer for your change to take effect Note that you can get seriously ugly results by choosing an inappropriate font It is a good idea to remember the font that you started with Data Viewer Options Long String Viewer The long string viewer is new in Version 10 It allows you to see strings that are too long to be viewed at the current column width Show Long String Viewer By default the viewer is on To use it simply left click on the cell you want
186. r a2 through al0 and any variable which starts with the string 11 The output type for these variables is specified from the drop down menu below the line specifying the variables Automatic optimization will of course not take place during your transfer when you have used the Optimize button Limitations on Changing Output Variable Types Output variable types can be changed freely for ASCII files and worksheet files For all other file formats you can change freely among the numeric types of byte integer long float and double and you can change among the time types However conversions between any of the nu meric types and dates or strings are not supported You should be careful not to choose a smaller type than that chosen by Stat Transfer unless you are sure you know more about your data than Stat Transfer does Remember that you are selecting a target type If the output data format does not support the spe cific type you have selected then Stat Transfer will use the best match to the type you have selected You can determine the output variable types supported for each output file type by consulting the ap propriate table in the Supported Programs section Handling Mixed Data If you have mixed data in which some variables need doubles and others do not for example you might have precisely measured dollar amounts which should be in doubles along with scales of
187. r or Debian 4 or higher Hardware Requirements e Intel or AMD x86 processor e Memory 512MB RAM e 20 MB of free disk space e At least a 1024 768 display Installation To install Stat Transfer place the Stat Transfer CD ROM in your drive Go to your CD ROM drive and choose either the 32 or 64 bit installer as appropriate By default Stat Transfer will be installed to a subdirectory stattransfer10_32 or stattransfer10_64 under your home directory If you want to install it to a different shared directory you will need to have root privileges before you run the installation program To change the directory to one other than the default click on Browse and then navigate to the directory By default the installation program will install not only the base Stat Transfer application but also the components that are necessary to support ODBC If you decide not to install these components you can run the installation program and add them Downloading Stat Transfer from Our Web Site Trial Version If you have downloaded Stat Transfer from our Web site or otherwise obtained a trial version it will work as if it were a full version except that one out of approximately sixteen cases will be deleted from your output file A message box will warn you of this and the border at the top of the Stat Transfer window will say Trial Mode To turn the trial version into a fully functioning copy of the software go to our Web site and purcha
188. ransfer will create legal variable names for you based as much as possible on the original names In particular when you transfer from systems such as Paradox or JMP which allow long variable names with embedded spaces to older systems which restricts variable names to eight characters by default Stat Transfer will truncate these for you However these truncated names often have little resemblance to the names you started with Stat Transfer will use the variable names as variable labels so that your original names are available If you check the option Write new numeric variable names Vn instead of the default variable names Stat Transfer will create new variable names of the form V1 VN This is chiefly useful when dealing with truncated names If your output system supports variable labels it is sometimes better to check this option and have Stat Transfer simply create numeric names for your variables You can then use the variable labels for the description Because this option is likely to be useful only in special circumstances it reverts to the default be tween sessions Preserve value label tags and sets Many software packages allow users to assign the same set of value labels to more than one variable In SAS the term for value labels is user defined format For example a survey with a list of questions with Yes and No responses could use the same set of value labels for the variables as sociated with e
189. rated programs Automatic logging Automatic program generation B Backslash in file names Batch jobs command files using generated programs Blank rows in worksheets byte target type Byte order for output C Canceling a transfer Case conversions variables Case selection command processor Observations dialog box Case selection expressions missing values relational operators in strings in wildcards in Catalog files SAS Century changeover year Changing output variable types Combining input files Index 89 93 15 15 37 3 18 3 17 47 48 75 76 17 40 21 72 Command files constructing executing extensions Command processor Access tables changing directory changing output variable types combining files command files dropping constants file type tags floats option help logging a session messages QPBC datasources optimizing output variable types options set by parameters options set with SET commands overwrite file warning QUIT command SAS file members selecting cases selecting variables specifying file types S PLUS files standard extensions starting startup options file worksheet pages worksheet ranges Command program generation options Concatenating worksheet pages Constants dropping COPY command D Data viewer options Database format worksheets date target type date time target type Date time formats reading Date time formats writing Dates return transfers d
190. riables tab at the top of the Transfer dialog box Once you have finished selecting variables when you return to the Transfer dialog box the number of variables you have chosen will appear 14 The Stat Transfer User Interface Transfer Dialog Box Selecting the Output File Format The output file format is selected in the third line of the dialog box Output File Type It is always advisable to give the input file type first before selecting the output file type Click on the Output File Type control to obtain the list of supported file types and to scroll through the list Select a file type by clicking on it The list of output file formats will be the same as the list of input file formats but with more choices of version and with the following exceptions e HTML tables will appear on the output format list since they can be written by Stat Transfer although they cannot be used as input e OSIRIS files will not appear since they are only read by Stat Transfer e SAS CPORT files will not appear since they are only read by Stat Transfer e When a worksheet has been chosen as input then worksheets will not appear in the output for mat list These types of conversions such as a Lotus 1 2 3 worksheet to an Excel worksheet are not supported since it is usually possible to do them within your spreadsheet program e Conversions from one xBASE file type to another are not supported since the file formats of dBASE and FoxPro are identic
191. ring variables or if the selected out put file type is such that the output file could be made smaller by optimization Some output file types such as Stata have a rich assortment of storage types and benefit from optimization Others such as worksheets or files that have only one numeric type SPSS for example do not benefit Stat Transfer can determine whether any variables can be represented as integers and for those cases it can determine the smallest possible integral type that can be used to represent the data Further if a variable cannot be represented by an integral type Stat Transfer can automatically determine whether it can be represented by a float instead of a double without a loss of information Information on the maximum length of string variables is also accumulated so that these can be stored in variables of the smallest possible length If you wish to tell the Stat Transfer command processor to turn off automatic optimization of the out put variable types you must use the parameter o COPY infilename ex1 outfilename ex2 o When this parameter is given Stat Transfer will not make an optimization pass through the input file even if it would benefit from it We do not recommend using this option Optimization is turned back on with the parameter o In almost all cases it is appropriate to accept the target output types that Stat Transfer chooses How ever there are times that you may wish to overri
192. rt Files S PLUS SPSS Data Files SPSS Portable Files SPSS Syntax and Data Files Stata Stata Program and Data Files Statistica SYSTAT Triple S Transfer Dialog Box wk mdb txt csv stsd Schema file sts Schema file dbf rec xls dbf dat htm jmp lpj mat schema sch mtw lpj none dict dct db wq wb rdata sd2 sas7bdat ssd01 sas7bdat stc xpt tpt none sav por sps dta do sta International Character Sets If you have a problem reading international character sets please see the Encoding Options entry in the Options dialog box Selecting Worksheet Pages Whenever you select a worksheet as input Stat Transfer will check to see if multiple pages are pres ent If more than one page is found Stat Transfer will display a Worksheet Page selection line below the input File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box If your worksheet pages are named as they are in Excel for example these names will be used Otherwise dummy names Sheetn will be dis played where n gives the number of the page The name of the first page of the worksheet will appear on the Worksheet Page line and unless you select another one will be the page used as the input data set by Stat Transfer If the data you wish to use are on a different page click on the control arrow and select the appropriate page from the list that appears The option Concatenate Worksheet Pages reache
193. run you will be asked permission before an output data set is overwritten If it is not checked the y option will be appended to the copy command in the program so your output data files will be overwritten without prompting Insert Quit at end of program If this option is checked programs run from the command processor prompt or the operating system will cause the Stat Transfer command processor to terminate at their conclusion It will not affect the behavior of programs run from the Run Program dialog box This option is checked by default because it allows you for example to click on a program in Win dows Explorer to have it run and then cleanly terminate However you may wish to keep the com mand processor open to examine the results or run other programs or execute a series of programs from another In that case you would not want quit to be inserted at the end of your programs Automatic Transfer Logging Stat Transfer always writes a log that is displayed in the Log dialog box You can view it and if you would like manually save it to disk However the options described here control a different feature that will automatically write a log file to disk every time you do a data transfer Always write a log file To turn on this feature check the option Always write a log file Filename By default the log file will have the same path and name as the output file but will have the extension stlog You ca
194. s appropriate for Windows However Unix machines vary in their byte order DEC Alpha and Intel processors are low high byte order other Unix machines are high low You can change the de fault in order to write a file appropriate for a Unix machine with the second byte order For example if you wish to produce an S PLUS file suitable for a Sun machine you would use the SET command set byte order hl 72 The Command Processor Setting Options with the SET Command Other Available Command Processor Commands Several commands are available at the Stat Transfer prompt which are the same as operating system commands You can also get help from the command line and if you wish you can produce a log of your transfer session Operating System Commands Changing Directory You can change directories by typing the cd command just as you do at the operating system prompt Note that the cd command given with no parameters will return the current directory Changing Drive Windows You can change drives by typing the drive letter followed by a colon just as you do at the DOS prompt Listing Files You can obtain a list of files by using the dir or Is command For example dir xls will list all files with the extension x s files in the current directory Running Other Programs and OS Commands You can execute operating system commands and run other programs from the Stat Transfer com mand line by preceding the program
195. s in a manner that is closer to SAS and Stata than SPSS FILE Command If your ASCII input file is not in the same directory as the SCHEMA file if it has an extension other than dat or has a name that is different from the SCHEMA file you must use the FILE command This consists of the word FILE beginning in the first column followed by the complete path and name of your input data file If there are embedded spaces in any of these elements you must en close the file specification in single or double quotes For example File C My data files new big file If the ASCH input file is in the same directory as the SCHEMA file with the same name and with an extension dat then the FILE command does not need to be used The FILE command is also omitted if you choose to put your input data in the same file as the SCHEMA commands using the DATA command Note that when Stat Transfer writes a SCHEMA file for an output fixed format or delimited ASCII file the output file specification will be written to the FILE command using the same drive directory and name as the input file appending the file extension dat You can tell Stat Transfer not to use this path but instead to use only the default directory and the file name See the ASC File Write section of the Options dialog box Page 36 FORMAT Command The format command is optional for fixed format data but it must be present in order to read delim ited data
196. s the SCHEMA commands rather than read from a separate file The DATA command which must follow all of the rest of the SCHEMA commands tells Stat Transfer to treat everything that follows as data When the DATA command is used the FILE command must be omitted SCHEMA File Comments You can put comments in the SCHEMA file with two slashes Everything that follows on the line will be treated as a comment this is a comment 98 Supported Programs SCHEMA Files for ASCH Input An Example SCHEMA File for a Fixed Format File File My data files new big file Variables ID 1 5 Arbitrary ID Number Age 6 7 0 98 99 Respondent s Age agelab Name 8 20 A Sex 21 sex incsat housesat 22 23 0 8 9 lt sat famsat 52 0 8 9 Satisfaction with Family sat Variable Labels Incsat Satisfaction with Income Housesat Satisfaction with Housing Value Labels agelab We only need labels for missing values 0 Not applicable 98 Not Ascertained 99 Refused sex 1 Male 2 Female sat 1 Not Satisfied 2 Somewhat Satisfied 3 Very Satisfied 8 Not Ascertained 9 Refused Assuming this SCHEMA file had the name survey sts you would read it into Stat Transfer by select ing ASCII Fixed format S T Schema from the menus and then selecting survey sts for the input file name The SCHEMA would then point to the data file big file in the directory my data files new If the data file were na
197. se an appropriate license As soon as the order is processed you will be sent an activation code by email 6 Installation Activation After installation is complete you may activate your software using a code which we will email to you or which can be found on your CD envelope The activation process is easiest if you have an internet connection On Line First go the About tab and click the Activate Online button On the next screen enter your activa tion code Press Next and you will be asked to enter your name organization and email address Press Next again to enter a password which will be used if you re activate your software on another computer see below You should not use a valuable password and you should write it down in your software manual or another place where you can find it if you need it Finally when you press Next again your information will be sent to our server and if your serial number is valid the activation information will be written to your computer Once activation is com plete you must restart Stat Transfer Off Line Windows If your computer is not connected to the internet you will be offered an activation process by which the program will generate a small file that you can save onto a thumb drive or other porta ble media You can then take this to an internet connected computer and upload it to our Web site The server will return another file that you can then save and move to your original compu
198. sily written where name mc mac Other examples are where age 21 31 41 51 61 which will select only the listed ages and where caseid 22 30 4 00 which will select all cases except those id s starting with 22 or four character id s starting with 30 or starting with 4 and ending with 00 Missing Values You can test to see if the value of any variable is missing by comparing it to the special internal vari able _missing For example where income missing amp age missing Preserving WHERE expressions Ordinarily the WHERE expression is cleared after a transfer operation If you wish to apply the same expression to several input files you can check the box Preserve expression between transfers and your expression will be available for re use or editing for your next transfer run Sampling Functions Three functions are available for sampling Random Samples The first function samp_rand prop allows for simple random sampling Each case is selected with a probability equal to prop 26 The Stat Transfer User Interface Observations Dialog Box For example for a random sample of one tenth of a data set use where samp _rand 1 Random Samples of Fixed Size The second function samp_fixed sample_size total_observations allows a random sample of fixed size to be drawn When using this function the first case is drawn with a probability of sample_size total_ observat
199. sing values in the SAS output file For all other input file formats on output to SAS missing values are set to the SAS standard missing value Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to SAS Transport Files from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte SAS Number width three bytes int SAS Number width four bytes long SAS Number width six bytes float SAS Number width eight bytes double SAS Number width eight bytes string SAS Character variable maximum length of 200 bytes date SAS Serial Date Number time SAS Time number of seconds since midnight date time SAS Datetime in seconds 134 Supported Programs SAS Transport Files S PLUS Files Stat Transfer will read and write S PLUS data sets Files written on 64 bit machines such as the DEC Alpha are not supported Standard Extension none Reading S PLUS files Because the S PLUS file format is so unstructured that it allows the user to write almost anything in cluding code into it Stat Transfer imposes a few restrictions on input files Specifically your data should be in one of the following formats e two dimensional matrices e vectors e factors e dataframes Factors Factors in S PLUS consist of a vector of zero based numeric values and a vector of string labels that are mapped onto the values If the input f
200. specific format Note that all numerical variables are stored internally in Stat Transfer as double precision floating point numbers and are then written out according to the assigned variable type Thus no numerical precision is lost Read me File The installation or Web update procedure may copy a file called read me which will be a supplement to the on line help or manual There is a shortcut to the read me file from the Windows Start menu in the Stat Transfer group For OS X and Unix the read me file can be found in the installation direc tory You should check to see if the read me file exists or has been updated If so you can read it in any editor or word processor We make every effort to keep up with changes in the file formats of popu lar software and the read me file will contain the latest information on which versions of these pro grams are supported The file will also contain the latest information on other improvements to Stat Transfer You can also get current information about Stat Transfer by visiting our Web site at http www stattransfer com You can reach our Web site from the Stat Transfer About screen Supported Programs 81 1 2 3 Worksheet Files Stat Transfer will read and write files from any version of Lotus 1 2 3 including Release 3 x and Windows Standard Extensions Lotus 1 2 3 Version 1 through 2 x wk1 Lotus 1 2 3 Version 3 x and Windows wk3 Reading 1 2 3 Worksheet Files Because worksheet
201. ss all host environments If you are downloading or uploading SAS data between computers be sure to use an error correcting file transfer protocol that is suitable for binary file Standard Extension xpt tpt Working with Transport Files within SAS The method for writing and reading transport files within SAS unfortunately varies across versions of SAS For users of release 6 x and higher the file can be written by any DATA or PROC step that creates SAS data sets and similarly it can be read by any DATA or PROC step Most commonly PROC COPY is used to write or to read transport data sets If you are using Version 6 06 or higher you can read or write transport files by using the XPORT engine To do so you must name the XPORT engine in the LIBNAME statement For example in Version 6 06 and higher the following code will write a transport file read system file old write transport file trans libname old file specification libname trans xport file specification proc copy in old out trans run The resulting transport file can then be used for a Stat Transfer data transfer If a transport file has been produced by Stat Transfer it can be read in SAS with the following read transport file trans write system file new libname trans xport file specification libname new file specification proc copy in trans out new run Note that you should not use PROC CPORT to write files th
202. ssor Other Available Command Processor Commands Command Files You can enter Stat Transfer commands in a command file as well as interactively at the Stat Transfer prompt or the operating system prompt When you enter commands at the prompt the command is executed immediately When you store commands in a file the commands are executed when you execute the file You can execute command files from the Stat Transfer prompt or from the operating system prompt When you wish to run batch jobs you must use command files Constructing Command Files You can create Stat Transfer command files as ASCH documents Type commands in the document just as you would type them at the Stat Transfer prompt You can put comments in command files by preceding the comments with a double slash Command File Name Extensions Stat Transfer assumes that command files have the extension stemd Stat Transfer Command The old extension stc which conflicts with the extension used by SAS for CPORT libraries is still supported but is now deprecated If you are executing a command file from the Stat Transfer command line you need not give an ex tension unless the file does not have the extension stcmd If you wish to run a command file from the operating system command line it must have the exten sion stemd and the extension must be given Executing Command Files Executing Command Files from the Stat Transfer Prompt You can execute a
203. system Stat Transfer has no way of knowing that these strings are dates and will treat them simply as character variables If you are planning such a two way transfer you may wish to treat date data as numbers rather than as dates Stat Transfer stores dates internally as the number of days since December 30 1899 Thus if you wish you can choose to put dates directly into your destination data set as numbers in this form by selecting the proper target type at the Variables dialog box If you do so these will survive a two way transfer involving a system that does not explicitly support dates 80 Variable Naming and Limits Supported Programs Specific information for each of the supported file formats is given in the sections that follow Input and Output Variable Types For a given input file format Stat Transfer will select a target output variable type for each input vari able type For any given input file these target types are automatically chosen during the optimiza tion pass during a transfer If you wish to see the target types that have been chosen use the Optimize button in the Variables dialog box or look in the file generated by the VARS command These target output types can be changed manually The actual output variable type that results from each target variable type will depend on the output file format The available output variable types are given for each of the supported file formats in the section for that
204. t Transfer Log window You can if you wish save these messages to a permanent file Log Level This option is designed to determine the information that is written to the log window during a trans fer Currently these settings control the error messages for SAS catalog reading only Their coverage will be expanded in the future The options are Critical Errors Only Information and Errors Verbose The Stat Transfer User Interface 49 Save Log File If you want to save the log that is written to the Stat Transfer log window click on the Save button The entry opath Y oname stlog will automatically appear in the Name box This instructs Stat Transfer to write the log file to the same directory and with the same name as your output file with the extension stlog If you wish to use a different name change it in the Name box The messages will then be saved to a file Clear Log You can clear the contents of the log by pressing the Clear Log button Send Error Report to Support If you are experiencing a problem with Stat Transfer you can send an error report to our support de partment by clicking Send error report When you click this button another window will open in which you can enter a complete description of the problem your name and your email address This message as well as your log file will be sent to Support at Circle Systems when you click the Send the data button You can if yo
205. t conventional value labels the one to one mapping of a string to a single number but also the mapping of a range of numeric values to a single string for example zip code mapped to state Because this latter form has no analog in any of the packages supported by Stat Transfer only con ventional one to one value labels are imported from SAS Options controlling how labels are processed You can control how Stat Transfer will behave if all does not go smoothly Continue if the format file is not found By default processing will stop if a file containing the formats is not found Change this behavior by unchecking this option Continue is there is an error processing formats By default processing will stop if there is an error reading the format file or if no tags in the dataset are matched to formats in the file Checking this option instructs Stat Transfer to continue processing even if there is an error processing the formats Writing SAS Value Labels The separate catalog file in which SAS stores value labels besides being undocumented can be shared among several SAS data sets This makes it problematic to update a SAS catalog file using an external program When writing value labels for SAS data files rather than update the catalog file di rectly Stat Transfer creates a SAS program that you can run in order to have SAS update its catalog file Setting the Appropriate Options You will first need to check the appropriate box
206. t file oname The name without the extension of the output file oext The extension without the dot of the output file Worksheets You have several options to specify what part of an input worksheet to read and how to read variable names Data Range You can choose different ranges to be read in input worksheets by using the Data Range drop down menu AutoSense_ This option is the default selection When it is selected Stat Transfer will read to the first non blank cell and use that as the upper left corner of the data range By default it will then read data until it encounters an entirely blank line This default behavior with regard to blank rows can be changed using the Blank Rows options given below Specify Named Range You can change the default Autosense behavior by specifying a named range If you select the option Specify Named Range then the Range line will become active and you must enter the name of a named range in your worksheet Specify Explicit Range You can also change the default behavior by specifying an explicit range If you select this option then the Range line will become active and you must enter ex plicit coordinates that define the range such as C3 F280 When a range has been specified by either one of these methods Stat Transfer s default treatment of entirely blank rows will also be overridden They will be returned in your output data and in addi tion blank rows at the end through the
207. t member On the other hand varchar is stored in variable length fields that save storage when the length of the string data varies between cases In general you will want to leave this option at its default and write variable length string types when these are permitted Show the name of the table view owner A table or view in a database is identified by its owner and its name If you are in an environment in which tables with different owners have the same name you will need to check this option to make sure that you can select the proper table Append to Access and ODBC tables This option which is off by default allows you to append your data to an existing database table Stat Transfer will match as many variables as is possible to those already in the table and add your data to the matching columns At least one column must match exactly and the table must be free of constraints that would prohibit a simple append operation such as those requiring unique keys ASCII Text Files Read Options Delimiter This option will give you a list of possible delimiters for input ASCH files You can choose to have Stat Transfer automatically sense which delimiter to use or you can choose one from the list com mas tabs spaces or semicolons If you have a delimiter that is not on the list click on Other and en ter the delimiter you wish to use Combine adjacent blanks This option is available for space delimited files on
208. ta together with programs to read the data back into SAS SPSS and Stata It also supports its own easy to use Schema format for reading in external data in ASCII format See the topics for specific file types for more information on supported versions of each type 2 Introduction What s New in Stat Transfer Formats Stat Transfer Version 10 has added support for the following formats e Matlab Seven Datasets e SPSS Version 17 e Statistica Versions 7 8 on Windows e Triple S Survey Interchange Format Other New Features Stat Transfer Version 10 has a number of new or improved features e International character set support Stat Transfer can now read datasets in any character set in cluding multi byte and far eastern and Unicode characters e Expanded Options The option screens have been expanded and reorganized to allow greater control over the transfer process and the user interface e Long variable labels for Stata Variable labels longer than Stata s eighty character maximum are now written to Stata both as truncated variable labels and in full as Stata notes e Automatic program generation You can specify that a program for the command processor be written when a transfer is carried out using the Stat Transfer user interface All of the informa tion you have specified for the transfer will be translated into a Stat Transfer command file in cluding all of your option settings This enables you to reprod
209. tall a folder for Stat Transfer in the Programs menu and a shortcut to Stat Transfer A shortcut to Stat Transfer will also be installed on your desktop Click on either of the shortcuts to start the program On OS X click on Stat Transfer in the StatTransfer10 folder of your Applications folder On Linux a shortcut to Stat Transfer will be installed on your desktop 10 The Stat Transfer User Interface Transfer Dialog Box iol x Stat Transfer Transfer Variables Observations Options Run Program Log About Input File Type spss Data File 2 File Specification Browse All Variables 49 total have been automatically selected Output File Type State SE Version 11 File Specification D stp gss dta Browse Transfer Reset Help Exit 49 variables selected Selecting the Input File Format The input file format is selected in the first line of the Transfer dialog box the Input File Type line Click on the Input File Type control arrow and you can browse through the list of supported file types Select an input file type by clicking on it The file type will be entered in the Input File Type line The Button You can obtain information on a given file type by clicking on the button Selecting the Input Data File The File Specification Line The Input Data File The input data file is selected on the second line of the Transfer dialog box the File S
210. tat Transfer I see something called Stat Transfer Command Processor What is it A The Stat Transfer Command Processor is a separate program that lets you transfer files without using the menu system but rather through simple commands It can be invaluable if you have a large number of repetitive transfers or if you wish to do batch transfers It can be reached from any plat form by typing st at the operating system prompt Now in Version 10 of Stat Transfer the command processor has been integrated into the user inter face so that you can generate command files automatically and edit and run command files from the Run Program tab Check the Command Processor section of the manual for complete details Q Ihave an Access database with over one hundred tables I want to convert these all to Stata files What is the easiest way to do this A First create a directory for your output files out for example Then enter the Command Pro cessor see Question 1 If your input file is in c data in mdb assuming a Windows machine and your new output directory was c data out you could use the command copy c data in mdb c data out dta t The t modifier in this command tells Stat Transfer to copy all of the tables from in mdb to the des tination out The output files will be automatically named with the name of the table and the exten sion dta Q I have fifty dBASE files I would like to move to SAS what is the e
211. ted and giving you the total number of variables If you wish to transfer all of the variables of the input data set you need do nothing more to specify them Manually Selecting Particular Variables If you want to select only some of the variables in the input data set click on the Variables tab at the top of the Transfer dialog box The Variables dialog box will appear with a list of all of the variables When you highlight a variable the variable label will appear in the box at the upper right By default all of the variables are selected You can select or unselect variables one by one by going to a particular variable and toggling selection on or off for that variable To do so click on the check box next to the name or click on the variable name and press the SPACE key If you wish to select or unselect a group of variables use the Quick Variable Selector Quick Variable Selector The box in the upper right corner enables you to specify selection criteria for the variables displayed in the list box at the left of the page This is considerably less tedious for long lists of variables than manually checking or unchecking them To select or unselect all of the variables type a star in the Quick Variable Selector box and click either Keep or Drop Variables Dialog Box The Stat Transfer User Interface 19 Selection conditions can take the form of the wildcard characters or or you can use variable ranges
212. ter You then press the Install License button to install this file and activate Stat Transfer OS X and Linux If your computer is not connected to the internet you will be offered an activation process by which the program will generate a special machine code that you the enter into a Web form on the Stat Transfer Web site The form in turn will provide you with a small text file that you can save and move to your target computer You then paste this file into a dialog brought up by the Install License button on the About dialog box For detailed instructions please see the Support Activation section of our Web site www stattranfer com If you have any trouble with the activation process please contact activation circlesys com for assistance Help in Activating the Software For detailed instructions please see the Support Activation section of our Web site www stattranfer com If you have any trouble with the activation process please contact activation circlesys com for assistance Installing on a Second Computer The activation process sends a machine fingerprint that identifies your particular computer If you have a single computer license for Stat Transfer you are permitted to install it on up to two comput ers as long as you are the primary user of both computers for instance on a home and office com puter In order to install Stat Transfer on another machine using the same activation code you will need to re activate
213. termining Variable Names By default Stat Transfer will attempt to determine whether or not the data in the first non blank row or the first row of a specified range are variable names or the first row of data It does so by look ing for at least one column in which there is a string in the first row and a number in the second If this behavior is inappropriate for your worksheet for example if you have only string data you can specify different options in the Field Name Row drop down menu of the Worksheets section of the Options dialog box You can specify that variable names must be taken from the first non blank row that they be taken from a specific row or that the worksheet does not contain variable names so that Stat Transfer should assign them coll through coln Determining the Data Types and Widths After identifying the label row Stat Transfer will look if necessary at the entire column to find the first non blank cell in order to determine the data type of each column If the first non empty data cell of a particular column is a number or a label with a single period Stat Transfer will transfer the column as a number If the data cell contains a label the variable will be transferred as a string The width of the column for each numeric variable and the format of the first non blank data cell in that column are used where possible to set the default target or output types for the numeric vari ables If the
214. that must be transposed such as S Plus These transfers are limited by available virtual memory It is unlikely however to be a problem Variable Naming and Limits 79 Return Transfers to the Original Format Because systems vary widely in the types of variables they support and the information they store about them you must be careful when transferring data from one format to another and then transfer ring back to the original format Stat Transfer will always transfer numeric values without losing ac curacy However other information about variables may be lost For example SPSS maintains value labels and up to three types of missing value for each variable If you transfer from an SPSS data set to Paradox the value labels will be dropped and missing values will be translated into a single Paradox internal format If you were then to transfer your data back to SPSS missing numbers would all be translated into the SPSS system missing value not the original values and because Paradox does not store value labels in the data set the value labels would be lost Because many systems do not explicitly support dates you should be particularly cautious when planning two way transfers of date variables Stat Transfer will generally convert date variables into MM DD YY strings when transferring to systems that do not explicitly support dates This makes the date intelligible in the destination system However when you transfer back to the source
215. the data are stored in a separate file with extension asc Standard extension xml ase Reading Triple S Stat Transfer will read and use Triple S variable and value labels Version 2 of the standard supports both fixed format and comma separated data files Stat Transfer will read either Triple S supports alternative sets of text for variable and value labels These are called modes For example you can have one mode for analysis and the other for interviewing If more than one mode is found you will be allowed to select it by using the Table selector or the t switch in the command processor The data file should be in the same directory as the dictionary file xml and should have the exten sion asc Writing Triple S Stat Transfer writes delimited Triple S files Missing Values Triple S simply represents missing with a blank field Numeric fields that cannot be converted to numbers are treated as missing On output missing values are written as blanks Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to Triple S from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte single int long float quantity double date Date time Time date time Character combining date and time strng Character Triple S_ Supported Programs 145 Frequently Asked Questions General
216. the following COPY infilename ex1 outfilename ex2 of When this parameter is given Stat Transfer will both optimize the variable types and use floats The floats option can only be used when output is optimized If you choose to set output variable types manually the parameter of should not be used with the COPY command Automatic Dropping of Constants from Output File You can tell Stat Transfer to automatically drop variables that are constant or missing for a selected subset of data In order to tell Stat Transfer to automatically drop constant or missing variables the parameter oc is used COPY infilename ex1 outfilename ex2 oc When this parameter is given Stat Transfer will both optimize the variable types and drop variables where needed Note that the drop constant option can only be used when the output is optimized You can use the doubles parameter and the drop constants parameter simultaneously using the pa rameter ocf COPY infilename ex1 outfilename ex2 ocf If you choose to set output variable types manually the parameters oc or ocf should not be used with the COPY command Options for Messages Overwrite Output File Warning By default Stat Transfer will ask permission before overwriting files Ifa file exists with the same name as the specified output file you will be prompted for permission before the file is overwritten You can use the parameter y to suppr
217. the software after you install the program on the second machine The re activation pro cess will ask you for your old password and a new password that identifies your second installation If you have forgotten or misplaced your old password you can have it sent to the email address you gave in your initial activation session by clicking on the Forgot your Password button Remember to write down both your old and new passwords Installation 7 Resources Demo Files The distribution disk contains sample files in many of the supported formats which you may find useful in learning about Stat Transfer s capabilities The file name indicates which program format each file illustrates In addition there is a file demo wk1 that illustrates the way Stat Transfer treats different kinds of variables The installation program will copy these files to the same directory chosen for installation of Stat Transfer Web Updates We periodically post maintenance releases of Stat Transfer on our Web site to support new file for mats add features or to fix problems that have come to our attention However we have found that many people are not taking advantage of these releases so they are using software that is older than it should be To address this problem Stat Transfer will automatically check the Web for updates By default the program will check for new versions once every week but you can change this op tion You can check immediatel
218. ther hand if the cell format has no decimal places for example F 0 the tar get types will be various flavors of integers which depend on the column width If the column width is less than three the target type will be byte If the column width is less than five the target type will by int Otherwise the target type will be long Any date format in the first data row will set the target type to date The maximum width of character variables is determined by examining the widths of all of the strings in a column Stat Transfer is lenient in typing variables from worksheets If it is expecting a character variable and it encounters a number it will convert it to a string Combining Multiple Input Worksheet to a Single Output File The option Concatenate Worksheet Pages found in the Worksheets options in the Options dialog box allows you to combine worksheet pages into a single output file This option is appropriate if your worksheet contains many sheets that are identical in structure These can be then be combined into a single output file of any type For example you may have a workbook that has 50 sheets with one sheet for each state and the same variables on each sheet If you check this box Stat Transfer will effectively combine the sheets into one large input file dropping the field names if necessary on the second and higher sheets You will end up with the data from all of your worksheet pages in a single o
219. tion conditions in the COPY command in variable selection in WHERE statements variable type changer Worksheet files 1 2 3 database format Excel numeric missing value options output fieldname Quattro Pro reading blank rows selecting pages specifying pages specifying ranges troubleshooting variable name determination Worksheet pages concatenating 517 39 40 59 70 150 40 13 41 70
220. to enter anything in either the Variables or the Observations dialog box Stopping a Transfer While the data are being transferred the Transfer button is labeled Stop If you click on it your transfer job will be aborted This is useful if you start a lengthy transfer and then realize that some thing is amiss When the transfer is complete a message will appear at the bottom of the Transfer dialog box indi cating that the transfer is finished and telling you how many cases were transferred Resetting Stat Transfer The Reset control at the bottom of the Transfer dialog box is used when you wish to do more than one transfer during a Stat Transfer session Once a transfer has been completed simply click on the Reset control and the input and output file specifications will be removed while the input and output file types remain Since Stat Transfer will supply a default specification for the output file using the input file specifica tion it is important that you always specify the input file name before the output file name If you wish to change the input and output file types for a new data transfer it is advisable to change the input file type first and then the output file type Saving a Stat Transfer Program You can generate a program for the command processor by pressing the Save Program button on the Transfer dialog box after the transfer is complete When this program is written it keeps all of the selections you have
221. to my colleagues A For use with general purpose software probably delimited ASCII is the best It is the closest thing to a lingua franca of data transport Stat Transfer writes delimited data in accordance with the standard set by Excel and that is followed by most software packages Worksheet files such as Excel 97 are widely supported as well and have the advantage of storing numbers in double precision As a general purpose transport format between statistical packages SPSS binary sav files and Stata files will maintain your value and variable labels and missing values They are also platform independent Q I want to save my data for use in the future what should I do A Ifyou are saving your statistical for use in the indefinite future the best thing to do is pick one of the ASCII files Programs options Even if the particular program is no longer available in future years you can be assured that some statistical package will be able to read your plain ASCH data and you will have the information that is necessary to re construct your dataset The worst thing to do is to store your data in a binary format Also pick your storage media carefully Those who stored data on nine track tapes and decks of cards can no longer read them We recommend ISO standard com pact disks for archival storage 146 Frequently Asked Questions Q Ihave a file in which numeric variables are stored as strings How can I get Stat Transfer to
222. trings that are too long to be viewed at the current column width By default the viewer is on To use it simply left click on the cell you want to examine and a view ing window will display the string To disable it uncheck the Show Long String Viewer option in Data Viewer Options in the Options dialog box By default the viewing window will close automatically when your cursor leave the cell that contains the string you are viewing To turn off this behavior uncheck the Hide Automatically option Variable Info Viewer This is also new in version 10 By default if you click on the variable name at the top of the grid a Variable Info Viewer box will open up that will show you the variable name its type and if avail able its label By default the viewing window will close automatically when your cursor leaves the cell that con tains the variable you are viewing To turn off this behavior uncheck the Hide Automatically option Variable Selection Indicator When the input file has been specified Stat Transfer by default selects all of the variables for transfer A message will appear below the input File Specification line telling you that all of the variables in the data set have been selected and giving the total number of variables If you wish to transfer all of the variables of the input data set you need do nothing more to specify them If you want to select only some of the variables in the input data set click on the Va
223. ts The missing value specifications are entered in square brackets and are separated by commas A number given by itself is an equal to specification That is if an input value is equal to the num ber it will be considered missing In addition missing value specifications can be entered as lt less than or equal plus a number and gt greater than or equal plus a number For a fixed format input file for example suppose the values 0 98 and 99 for the variable age are all used to indicate a missing value Then Age 6 7 0 98 99 Age 6 7 0 gt 98 Age 6 7 lt 1 98 99 are all equivalent assuming positive values for the variable age For a delimited input file this would be specified as Age F 0 98 99 and so on Variable Labels If you only have one variable on a line not a list or a range and wish to use variable labels then it is most convenient to put them on the same line as the variables The variable labels are enclosed in curly braces as in Age 6 7 0 98 99 Age of Respondent If you are using a range or a list with fixed format input to define several similar variables and you wish to label them you must use the VARIABLE LABELS command described below SCHEMA Files for ASCII Input Supported Programs 97 Value Label Tag If you wish to attach labels to the values of your variables you must define the label set using the VALUE LABELS command discussed belo
224. u wish also send the input file that is causing the problem When you check the Send the input file to Circle Systems box your input file will be sent along with the rest of the informa tion By default the file will be sent in a compressed and encrypted format Including the input file will generally make it easier for Support to troubleshoot your problem 50 The Stat Transfer User Interface Log Dialog Box The Command Processor Stat Transfer has a command processor that will perform transfers using a copy like syntax and which allows batch jobs to be run for repetitive transfers You can select variables and cases automati cally optimize the output variable types or change output types manually You can give commands to the Stat Transfer command processor in different ways directly at the Stat Transfer prompt or at the operating system prompt or from a stored command file Starting the Command Processor Starting from Windows Go to the shortcut Stat Transfer Command Processor in the Stat Transfer folder under Programs on the Start menu The Stat Transfer prompt will appear Starting from the Operating System Prompt You can also call the command processor directly from the operating system prompt by typing st The Stat Transfer prompt will appear When you call the program you will either need to be in the directory in which you installed Stat Transfer or have that directory on your path or precede st
225. uce your transfer operation either from the user interface or as a batch job from your operating system It also allows you to pre cisely document how your transfer was performed e Improved data viewer The data viewer has been improved and will now display long strings international character sets variable characteristics and value labels e Value label browser You can now examine value labels for each variable on the Variables tab e Quick variable type changer You can change the types of many variables at a time using wildcards ranges or lists e Automatic transfer logging You can tell Stat Transfer to automatically write a log file to disk every time you do a data transfer The log file will contain detailed information about what has occurred during your transfer By default this will go to the same directory as your output file e New user interface including one for Linux The user interface is now the same on Window OS X and Linux What s New in Stat Transfer 3 Help for Old Friends Users of a certain age might remember a section with this title in their SPSS manual Its purpose was to quickly point out changes that may require adjustments for experienced users Version 10 of Stat Transfer has many changes in its user interface Most notably the options have been expanded and organized we hope more sensibly on a single tab We are now building the user interface for Windows the Mac and Linux from a single source Ma
226. ues will be hard to determine Output Variable Types The output variable type that results from each target variable type is given in the following table Output to Delimited ASCII from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Number int with a precision of up to long 15 decimal places float double string Character date Character time written according to the ASCII date time format options currently in effect 88 Supported Programs ASCII Files Delimited ASCII Files Fixed Format Stat Transfer will read and write fixed format ASCII Standard extension sts Reading Fixed Format ASCII Files Stat Transfer can read fixed format ASCII files These are data files where each field has a fixed col umn location and width rather than having the start and end of the field marked by a delimiter char acter such as a comma or tab Unlike the delimited ASCII format where Stat Transfer can read the data based on the information contained in the data file fixed format files require a separate description of each field s location in the record You will need to provide this information in a separate Stat Transfer Schema file See Page 93 In the Schema file you can also define missing values value and variable labels and other characteristics of your data as well as the path to the data file or the data file itself Using the Menus To use fixed format ASCII files as input with the Stat Transfer menus sele
227. utomatically assigned by Stat Transfer will be displayed on the buttons on the right If you wish to change the output type for a particular variable simply click on the new type you want to assign to that variable Quick Variable Type Changer This feature is useful when you want to change the type of a number of variables where the new type is the same for all The Quick Type Changer dialog box enables you to specify selection criteria for the variables This is considerably less tedious for long lists of variables than manually changing each one Selection conditions are entered in the same way as in the Quick Variable Selector box described above They can take the form of the wildcard characters or or you can use variable ranges The question mark matches exactly one character while the asterisk matches more than one Unlike standard wildcards more than one asterisk can be included in a specification For instance inc will match any variable with the string inc in any position Ranges of contiguous variables can be specified with a dash without spaces between two variable names For instance distance a9 will select or drop variables distance through a9 inclusive Space or comma delimited lists of conditions can be entered at one time For example factorl cluster a2 al10 L1 22 The Stat Transfer User Interface Variables Dialog Box will select the variables factor1 cluste
228. utput file Writing Quattro Worksheet Files On output by default Stat Transfer will write variable labels in the first row of the worksheet Data values will be placed in the second and succeeding rows You can change this behavior in the Worksheets options in the Options dialog box Column widths and formats will be determined by the variable information available Dates and character variables are straightforward For numerical data information on the width and number of decimal places of variables where available is used to set the column widths and formats Writing Quattro Worksheet Files On output Stat Transfer will write variable labels in the first row of the worksheet Data values will be placed in the second and succeeding rows Column widths and formats will be determined by the variable information available Dates and character variables are straightforward For numerical data information on the width and number of decimal places of variables where available is used to set the column widths and formats Missing Data On input blank cells and cells containing labels consisting of a single dot are read as missing If there is a string in your worksheet such as NA that you would like to have treated as a numeric missing value you can specify it using the Numeric Missing Value in the Worksheets section of the Options dialog box 122 Supported Programs Quattro Pro Worksheet Files When transferring data to worksh
229. w You then attach the label to a particular variable or set of variables using a tag The tag begins with a backslash For example if instead of setting values to missing you might wish to label them instead Age 6 7 Age of Respondent agelab where the value label tag agelab is defined using the VALUE LABEL command as shown in the example on the next page VARIABLE LABELS Command If you are using lists or range specifications with fixed format input in the VARIABLES command and need to define labels for those variables then you must use the VARIABLE LABELS command This command is followed by as many variable name variable label pairs as needed For example Variable Labels Housesat Satisfaction with Housing Incsat Satisfaction with Income will label the variable Housesat as Satisfaction with Housing and the variable Incsat as Satis faction with Income If the labels contain embedded blanks they should be enclosed in single or double quotes VALUE LABELS Command You can define sets of value labels with the VALUE LABEL command The elements are a tag pre ceded by a backslash and then value label pairs For instance Value Labels Agelab 0 Inapplicable 98 Not Ascertained 99 Refused If the labels contain embedded blanks they should be enclosed in single or double quotes DATA command The input data can be read from the same file a
230. write fixed format data files and will if directed create a Stat Transfer Schema file Alternatively you can choose to have Stat Transfer write programs to accompany output fixed format ASCII files that will allow these files to be read into SAS SPSS or Stata Fixed format ASCII data files along with the associated program files are useful for passing your data to colleagues In addition they are a prudent way to archive your data for future use as they are not dependent on changes in computer architecture or the fate of a particular software package You have various options when writing the program files See Page 32 and Page 36 ASCII Files Fixed Format Supported Programs 89 Using the Menus When you click on the Output File Type control in the Transfer dialog box you will see the follow ing entries in the list of supported output file types ASCII Fixed Format S T Schema SAS Program ASCII Data File SPSS Program ASCII Data File Stata Program ASCII Data File ASCH Fixed Format S T Schema This selection writes an ASCH data file plus a Stat Transfer Schema file The schema file name will appear in the output File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box Stat Transfer constructs the output file specification by using the same drive directory and name as the input file and appending the file extension sts The output file itself will have the same name as the input and schema files but with the extensi
231. x When transferring data to worksheets from other formats missing values will be written out to worksheets as blank cells 1 2 3 Worksheet Files Supported Programs 83 Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to Lotus 1 2 3 from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte int long float double Numeric cell formatted if information is available string Label 84 Supported Programs date time date time 1 2 3 Worksheet Files Serial date number with date format Time fraction with date format if available Date number time fraction with date time format if available Access Stat Transfer will read and write Access databases on Windows Although the data are transferred through the Microsoft Access ODBC driver Access files are treated as a normal Stat Transfer file type You can thus choose the file from the normal Open or Save dialog boxes and need not be concerned with the process of configuring an ODBC data source for each file In order to use Microsoft Access you must have the ODBC and Access components installed with the Stat Transfer program If you did not do this when you installed Stat Transfer you can re run the in stallation program and install the components Standard extension mdb Reading Microsoft Access Databases Stat Transfer can either read single tables or
232. y daily weekly monthly quarterly or if you are running on a com puter that is not connected to the Web never In order to change the interval at which Stat Transfer checks the Web click on the About tab of Stat Transfer and select one of the options Suppose you choose Every Week the default Each time you start Stat Transfer the program will compare the current date to the date at which the version was last checked If it the difference is less than seven days nothing will happen If it is seven days or more the update program will ask you if you would like to check the Web If you choose to do so the program will check our Web site for the latest version If it finds a version that is newer than yours it will download a descriptive file for you to read You can then choose whether or not to download the latest release these are generally quite small less than 800K If you choose to do so it will be installed on your computer The read me file will also be downloaded so that you can check to see what new features have been added If you wish you can tell Stat Transfer to do an immediate check for a newer version rather than wait for an automatic check To do so go to the About tab and select Right Now The update program will then check our Web site for updates as described above Online Documentation Manual The complete Stat Transfer manual is available on our Web site in HTML and PDF format The PDF manual is inst
233. y well be required If you have difficulty connecting to a data source with Stat Transfer please try to connect with another tool such as Excel or one supplied by your database vendor If you have difficulty with another tool you should first talk to a local database administrator or the database vendor s support organization before contacting Circle Systems for support Reading For ODBC the Stat Transfer menus will present a list of installed data sources instead of the Open or Save dialog boxes For details on using ODBC data sources with the command processor see Page 77 Stat Transfer can either read single tables or multiple tables that are joined in an view Writing On output tables can be created in a new file new tables can be created in an existing file or existing tables can be overwritten with a new table In addition new data can be now appended to an existing database table This option is off by default and must be turned on by using the Append to Access and ODBC Tables option in the ODBC Ac cess Options section of the Options dialog box or the SET command DB TABLE APPEND in the command processor Stat Transfer will match as many variables as possible to those already in the table and add your data to the matching columns Obviously at least one column must match exactly and in addition the ta ble must be free of constraints such as those requiring unique keys that would prohibit a simple ap pend oper
234. ype of the variable Missing Data FoxPro does not directly support missing values On input to Stat Transfer blanks in a FoxPro file are interpreted as missing values If a data set is being transferred to an FoxPro file format missing val ues in the input files are set to blank in the FoxPro file Blanks are interpreted as zero by FoxPro Many other programs including Stat Transfer interpret these blanks as missing Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to FoxPro from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Number width 4 0 decimal places int Number width 6 0 decimal places long Number width 11 0 decimal places float Float double width 16 string Character date Date time Character date time written according to the ASCII format options currently in effect 106 Supported Programs FoxPro Files Gauss Files Stat Transfer will read and write Gauss data sets There are two Gauss formats The first Gauss 89 is used on PC platforms and consists of two files a data file with a dat extension and a header or dictionary file with a dht extension The second Gauss format Gauss 96 is used on Unix platforms and has a single file with a DAT extension Standard Extension dat Reading Gauss Files When you wish to transfer data from a Gauss data set give Stat Transfer the na
235. ypes are given in the following table Output to Stata from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Byte int Int long Long float Float double Double date Stata Date time Float fractional part of a day date time Double Stata date and fractional part of a day string Character 142 Supported Programs Stata Files Statistica Files Stat Transfer supports Statistica Versions 5 and 7 9 Standard Extension sta Reading Statistica Stat Transfer will read and use Statistica variable and value labels Each column has a single missing value which will be applied Writing Statistica Statistica does not have a string type so character variables cannot be exported Missing Values Statistica has one missing value for each variable Stat Transfer uses this when it reads a Statistica file When writing a Statistica file Stat Transfer will use a value of 9999 for missing Output Variable Types The output variable types that result from each of the target variable types are given in the following table Output to Statistica from Stat Transfer Target Type Output Type byte Number int long float double date Date time Time date time Date time String Not exported Statistica Files Supported Programs 143 SYSTAT Files Stat Transfer writes double precision SYSTAT files It will read either double or single precision SYSTAT files Standard Extension sys Re
236. ys follows the variable naming rules of the output file type and will convert input names so that they will conform to those rules Some older packages require upper case variable names Other more modern packages allow mixed case variable names Some packages notably Stata S PLUS and R allow mixed case variable names but are case sensitive In these case sensitive systems if Stat Transfer were to move data from an upper case system and do no case conversion the user of the data set would need to always hold down the shift key when typing in variable names Stat Transfer allows you to specify your case conversion preferences for case insensitive packages as well as case sensitive packages The available options are given in the drop down menus for both case sensitive and case insensitive programs and are Convert to lower Preserve if mixed case Preserve always Convert to upper The default for case insensitive programs is Preserve always The default for case sensitive programs is Preserve if mixed case This choice is designed to handle mixed case variable names such as FamilyIncome If both upper and lower case letter are found in a variable name it will be left untouched Otherwise it will be converted to lower case Formats which are considered case sensitive on output are Stata S PLUS R and Matlab Formats that require upper case variable names are SAS Version 6 SAS XPORT SPSS Portable SYSTAT Epi Info a
237. ystem Prompt You can run a transfer directly from the operating system OS prompt or you can execute a com mand file If you wish to run a transfer directly from the OS prompt then the COPY command is implicit and if the command processor is on your path you type the following ST infilename ex outfilename ex2 xl x2 where infilename ex1 and outfilename ex2 are the input and output files respectively just as they are for the COPY command used within the command processor File type tags are used in the same way as well In order to run a transfer from the command line you will either need to be in the directory in which you installed Stat Transfer or have that directory on your path or precede st by the path to Stat Transfer The same parameters xi that are used from within the command processor from the Stat Transfer prompt are also used at the OS prompt When a transfer is run directly from the OS prompt variable selection and case selection are not pos sible All variables and all cases will be transferred Carrying out a transfer from the OS command line is equivalent to copying the file from one format to another For example to transfer all of the variables and cases from an Excel file indata xls to a Stata file outdata dta type st indata xls outdata dta Options set with SET commands are available only if they are included in a startup options file Wildcard transfers can be specified from the OS pr

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