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help for ftrans                                                     version 2.0
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Batch File Format Converter

Description

ftrans provides a batch process to exchange data of current directory between different spreadsheet and statistics programs.

Syntax

ftrans old_file_extension new_file_extension [options]

options Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------- /o- specifies that Stat/Transfer will not optimize the output data set to be as small as possible (as Stat/Transfer does by default). /oc specifies that Stat/Transfer will optimize the output data set to be as small as possible, and automatically drop constant or missing variables. /od specifies that Stat/Transfer will optimize the output data set to be as small as possible, but produce double precision variables where appropriate. /ocd specifies that Stat/Transfer will optimize the output data set to be as small as possible, and automatically drop constant or missing variables, but produce double precision variables where appropriate. /q specifies that Stat/Transfer will execute quietly, producing no messages, with the exception of error messages and warnings that a file is about to be overwritten. /r[page!]coor specifies a worksheet range, limited to page page and coordinates specified by coor, in an input worksheet file. The coordinates specify a top left and bottom right cell in the worksheet. For instance, /r2!b5:e75 specifies that the data are on page 2 of the input file, between the top left cell b5 and the bottom right cell e75. /s will turn on messages and leave the Stat/Transfer window open until the return key is pressed. This may be useful if Stat/Transfer appears not to be working. /ttablename is used in order to specify a table (or worksheet) within a data source containing multiple tables (or worksheets). /vversion_number specifies that Stat/Transfer will write the output dataset in the version of the appropriate format specified by the version_number, which should be a positive integer. If this switch is not specified, then Stat/Transfer writes the output dataset in the latest version of the appropriate format. /y specifies that files with the old_file_extension.ext will be overwritten, if it already exists. (If /y is not specified, then Stat/Transfer consults the user before overwriting files.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Examples

Convert all files in current directory (d:\temp) with old_file_extension .dta to new_file_extension .sav, or .sav to .sas7bdat:

. cd d:\temp

. ftrans dta sav

. ftrans sav sas7bdat

Convert all files with the file extension .sas7bdat to .dta, old .dta files will be overwritten with version 7.0 stata files:

. ftrans sas7bdat dta /y /v7

Technical note

Before using ftrans, you have to (1) install Stat/Transfer in your computer, and (2) set the global macro StatTransfer_path for the path of the Stat/Transfer st command, which is done easily by inserting a line into the user's profile do-file to initialize this path every time you starts Stata (if your Stat/Transfer has been installed in the directory of "c:\Program Files\StatTransfer10\" ):

global StatTransfer_path `"c:\Program Files\StatTransfer10\st.exe"'

Note that, when the user upgrades to a new version of Stat/Transfer, the upgrade creates a new directory, containing the new version of st.exe. Therefore, when Stat/Transfer is upgraded, either the user's default directory search path should be altered, or the line of code in the user's profile do-file setting the global macro StatTransfer_path should be altered.

Remarks

Stat/Transfer can be installed on Microsoft Windows, MacOS, and some Unix platforms. It is available from Stata Corporation and developed by Circle Systems.

References

ftrans supports the following file formats:

(If you have installed Stat/Transfer 10 in your computer)

1-2-3 (*.wk?) Microsoft Access (Versions 2.0 through Office XP version) (*.MDB; ACCDB) dBASE (all versions) (*.DBF) Delimited ASCII (*.CSV; *.TXT) Delimited ASCII with a Stat/Transfer SCHEMA file (*.STS*) Epi Info (*.REC) Excel worksheets (all versions, including Excel 2007) (*.XLS) Fixed format ASCII (*.dat) FoxPro (*.DBF) GAUSS (Windows and Unix) (*.DAT) JMP (*.JMP) LIMDEP (*.LPJ) MATLAB (*.MAT) MATLAB Seven Datasets Mineset (*.sch*) Minitab (*.mtw) NLOGIT (*.LPJ) ODBC data sources (Oracle, Sybase, Informix, etc.) (*.DBF; *.XLS; *.MDB) OSIRIS (read-only) (*.dic*; dct) Paradox (*.DB) Quattro Pro for DOS and Windows (*.WQ?; *.WB?) R (*.RData) S-PLUS (now supported through version 7) (*. ) SAS CPORT datasets and catalogs (read only) (*.stc) SAS for Unix¡ªHP, IBM, Sun (*.SSD*; *.sas7bdat) SAS for Unix¡ªDEC Alpha SAS for Windows and OS/2 (*.sd*; *.sas7bdat; *.ssd) SAS PC/DOS 6.04 (read only) SAS Transport (*.STX; *.TPT; *.XPT) SAS Value Labels SAS Version 7¨C9 SPSS Version 17 (*.SAV) SPSS Datafiles (Windows and Unix) (*.SAV) SPSS Portable Files (*.POR) Stata (all versions, including 11) (*.DTA) Statistica Versions 7¨C8 (Windows only) (*.STA) SYSTAT (Windows and Mac) (*.SY?) Triple-S Survey Interchange Format (*.xml; *.sss)

HTML Table (Output) (*.HTM*) SPSS Program + ASCII Data (Output) (*.SPS) Stata Program + ASCII Data (Output) (*.DO)

Acknowledgements

The codes to run Stat/Transfer st command are traced back to Roger Newson's stcmd, and the codes to get directory information are traced back to Morten Andersen's dirlist.

For problems and suggestions

Author: Liu wei, The School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China. Address: Zhongguancun Street No. 59, Haidian District, ZIP Code: 100872. E-mail: rucwz-stata@yahoo.cn

Also see

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