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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]

These are prefixed by / under Windows and by - under Unix.
A list of these options(switches) can be found in the Stat/Transfer manual for the user's installation.
The Windows options for Version 9 of Stat/Transfer are as follows:

/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, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics. Address: Longquan Road 237, Wuhua District, Kunming, Yunnan, P.R.China. ZIP Code: 650221.
E-mail: liuwei@ynufe.edu.cn

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