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help for outdat
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Export data to other statistical packages

        outdat[varlist] using filename [, replace type(packagelist)] nostring
                           listwise

Description

outdat writes data to a disk file in ASCII format, a format that can be read by
other programs.  To read the data into other programs you need a data
dictionary, which is also produced by outdat.

The ASCII file written by outdat is called filename with the extension dat. The
data dictionary is also called filename, but with the extension for the data
dictionary of the specific software you want to use.  If you want to use SPSS,
for example, the dictionary is called filename.sps.

To transfer data to a SQL-Database outdat creates a file, containing the SQL
INSERT instructions to load each row into a preexisting table. The name of this
table is the filename without the path of the file. That is, using
~/path/to/file/xyz implies "xyz" as the name for the table. To produce
SQL-Tables check out the option create.

It must be noted that some Stata features (long variable names, case
sensitivity, etc.) cannot be handled in all packages. You may use rename before
executing outdat for such data. But also note that it is easy to edit the
dictionary to fit more specific requirements of the software to which you
transfer.

Options

replace permits outdat to overwrite an existing filename.dat and dictionary
    file. As always replace cannot be abbreviated.

type(packagelist) is used to specify the software packages you want to transfer
    to. You specify the software packages by their names in lower case letters
    with spaces in between. To get data dictionaries for SPSS and Stata you
    have to specify type(spss stata) for example.

spss is the default if you do not specify this option.

    The following packages can be specified:

        limdep Limdep (not tested!)
        spss SPSS
        sql SQL-Databases (Oracle, mySQL)
        stata Stata
        rats RATS

    This list will be expanded sooner or later.

nostring forces outdat not to transfer string variables. This is useful as some
    packages cannot handle string variables.

listwise is used to transfer only observations with no missing values on any of
    the specified variables.

upper is used to transfer variable names in upper case.  Without upper the
    variable names are transfered as they are. For type(sql) this also changes
    the case of SQL-commands and filenames.

create has a special meaning only with type(sql).  type(sql) without create
    produces a script to input the data in a preexisting table of the SQL
    Database. With create you get another script to setup the table itself.
    Note that create does not produce an error if you use it together with
    another package than SQL. It simply gets ignored.

Examples

        outdat using mydata
        outdat mpg hdroom foreign using auto, t(spss)
        outdat using mydata, t(sql stata) nostring listwise create


Author

        ukohler@sowi.uni-mannheim.de

Acknowledgements

The extensions for RATS and SQL builds on torats and tosql written by
Christopher Baum.

Also see
On-line: help for outfile, infile