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Copyright 2007

All Rights Reserved

Circle Systems, Inc.

The Stat/Transfer program is licensed for use on a single com puter sys tem or network node. Use by

multi ple us ers on more than one com puter 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 re fers to numerous products by their trade names. In most, if not all, cases these

designations are claimed as trademarks or registered trademarks by their respective com panies.

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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 thefollowing Circle Systems License Agreement.

THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN CIRCLE SYSTEMS, INC. AND YOU, THE END USER. CAREFULLYREAD 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 LICENSEAGREEMENT. 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 COPIES FROM YOUR COMPUTER AND RETURN THESOFTWARE AND ANY ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS WITHIN 30 DAYS OF PURCHASE, WITH PROOF OFPURCHASE, 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 firstcomputer when you install it on the other computer. If one individual uses the Dedicated Computer more than 80% of the time thatit is in use, then that individual may also load and use the software on that individual’s portable or home computer. You may alsomake a copy of the software for backup or archival purposes. If you receive a copy of the software electronically and on disk, youmay 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 incomputer executable form only, and does not allow user access to the underlying source code and data. You may not reverseengineer, decompile, or disassemble the software to gain access to such code and data, except to the extent applicable lawexpressly 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 priorwritten 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 avolume 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 thesoftware and violate the software’s copyright.

LIMITED WARRANTY AND REMEDIES

Circle Systems war rants that the software will perform in substan tial com pliance 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 com puter hardware and with theoperating 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 periodfrom your original purchase. If you re port in 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, CircleSystems will re place it free of charge. You must insure items being re turned, since Circle Systems does not accept the risk of lossor damage in transit.

THE WARRANTIES AND REMEDIES SET FORTH ABOVE ARE EXCLUSIVE AND IN PLACE OF ALL OTHERS, ORALOR WRITTEN, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. CIRCLE SYSTEMS DOES NOT AND CAN NOT WARRANT THEPERFORMANCE OR RESULTS YOU MAY OBTAIN USING THE SOFTWARE. EXCEPT FOR THE FOREGOINGLIMITED WARRANTY AND REMEDIES, AND FOR ANY WARRANTY, CONDITION, REPRESENTATION, OR TERMTO THE EXTENT TO WHICH IT CAN NOT 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 PARTYRIGHTS, INTEGRATION, OR FIT NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. CIRCLE SYSTEMS WILL IN NO EVENT BELIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROMTHE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR MANUAL, EVEN IF CIRCLE SYSTEMS HAS BEENADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Because software is inherently complex and may not be completely free of errors, Circle Systems is not responsible for any costsincluding, but not limited to, lost profits or revenue, loss of time or use of the software, loss of data, the cost of recoveringsoftware or data, the cost of substitute software, claims by third parties, or similar costs. In no event will the liability of CircleSystems exceed the amount paid for the software.

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NOTICE TO U.S. GOVERNMENT END USERS

The software and manual are “Commercial Items,” as that term is defined at 48 C.F.R. §2.101, consisting of “CommercialComputer Software” and “Commercial Computer Software Documentation,” as such terms are used in 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48C.F.R. §227.7202, as applicable. Consistent with 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §§227.7202-1 through 227.7202-4, asapplicable, the Commercial Computer Software and Commercial Computer Software Documentation are being licensed to U.S.Government end users only as Commercial Items and with only those rights as are granted to all other end users pursuant to theterms and conditions herein. Unpublished-rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States. Circle Systems, Inc.,1001 Fourth Avenue, Suite 3200, Seattle, WA 98154 USA.

GENERAL

This is the complete and exclusive statement of the agreement between you and Circle Systems. It supersedes any prior agreement or understanding, oral or written, between you and Circle Systems, its agents and employees, with respect to thissubject. No Circle Systems distributor, dealer, or agent is authorized to make any modification, extension, or addition to thisAgreement and the limited warranty and limitation of liability. The laws of the State of Washington, USA govern this agreement.

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Table of Con tents

Introduction 1

What Stat/Transfer does 1

File Types Supported by Stat/Transfer 1

What’s New in Stat/Transfer 3

Formats 3

Other New Features 3

Installation 4

Installing Stat/Transfer 4

The READ.ME File 5

Demo Files 5

Web Up date 5

Uninstall Program 6

Technical Support 7

Using the Stat/Trans fer Menus 8

Using Windows 8

Stat/Transfer Online Help 8

Starting Stat/Transfer 8

Transfer Dialog Box 9

Selecting the Input File Format 9

Selecting the Input Data File 9

View Input Data 11

Variable Selection Indicator 12

Naming the Output File 13

Run ning the Program 13

Stopping a Transfer 14

Resetting Stat/Transfer 14

Variables Dialog Box 15

Variable Selection 15

Con trolling the Types of Output Variables 16

Observations Dialog Box 20

Selecting Cases from the Input File 20Case-Selection Expressions 20

Options(1) Dialog Box 24

General Options 24

User Missing Values 26

Date/Time Formats 27

Restoring and Saving Options 29


ASCII File Read 30

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ASCII File Write 32



Reading SAS Value Labels 33

Writing SAS Value Labels 35

Input Worksheets 35



Output Options 37

Options for Generated Programs and Schemas 38

Convert R and S-Plus factors to 38

JMP Options 39


Log Dialog Box 40

Stat/Transfer log 40

Data Settings 40

Save Log File 41

Clear Log 41

Send Error Re port to Support 41

The Command Processor 42

Using the Command Processor 42

The Copy Command 43

Transfers from the Command Processor 43

Wildcard Transfers 43

Transfers from the DOS Prompt 44

Combining Files 44

Specifying the File Type 46

Standard Extensions 46File-Type Tags 46

Special Cases when Specifying Files 47

Selecting Cases with the Command Processor 49

Selecting Variables with the Command Processor 50

Keep and Drop Commands 50

Changing Output Types 51

Options Set by Parameters after the COPY Command 54

Options for Data Sets 54

Options for Variables 56

Options for Messages 57

Options Selected with the SET Command 58

Available Options 58

Other Available Commands 63

DOS- Like Commands 63

DOS Programs and Commands 63

Quit 63

Command Processor Help 63

Logging Stat/Transfer Sessions 64

Command Files 65

Constructing Command Files 65

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Command File Name Extensions 65

Executing Command Files 65

Run ning DOS Programs and Commands 66

Special Considerations for ODBC Data Sources 67

The DBR and DBW Commands 67

Run ning Batch Jobs with ODBC 68

Vari able Naming and Limits 69

Variable Names 69

Limitations on the Number of Variables 69

Limitations on Strings with Value Labels 69

Internal Limitations 69

Re turn Transfers to the Original Format 70

Supported Programs 71

Input and Output Variable Types 71

READ.ME File 71

1-2-3 Worksheet Files 72

Access 75

Delimited ASCII Files 77

Fixed Format ASCII Files 79

SCHEMA Files for ASCII In put 83

dBASE Files and Compatibles 90

Epi Info 92

Excel Worksheets 93

FoxPro Files 96

Gauss Files 97

HTML Tables 98

JMP Files 99

LIMDEP Files 100

Matlab Files 101

Mineset Files 102

Minitab Worksheets 103

NLOGIT Files 104

ODBC Data Sources 105

OSIRIS Files 107

Paradox Tables 108

Quattro Pro Worksheet Files 109R 112

SAS Data Files 114

SAS Value Labels 116

SAS CPORT 120

SAS Transport Files 121

S-PLUS Files 123

SPSS Data Files 125

SPSS Portable Files 127

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Stata Files 129

Statistica Files 131

SYSTAT Files 132

Frequently Asked Questions 133

General Questions 133

Command Processor 134

Licenses 135ODBC Data Sources 135

SAS Data Files 136

SAS Transport Files 137

S-PLUS Files 137

Stata Files 137

Worksheet Files 137

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Introduction

What Stat/Transfer does

Stat/Transfer is designed to sim plify the transfer of statistical data between different programs.

Data generated by one program is often needed in another context, either for analysis, for cleaningand 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 asvariable names, missing values and value and variable la bels. This process is not only time-consuming,it is error-prone. For those in possession of data sets with many variables, it represents a serious im pedi-ment to the use of more than one program.

Stat/Transfer removes this barrier by providing an extremely fast, reliable and automatic way to movedata. Stat/Transfer will automatically read statistical data in the internal format of one of the sup - ported programs and will then transfer as much of the information as is present and ap pro priate to theinternal format of another.

Stat/Transfer preserves all of the precision in your data by storing it internally in dou ble precision for-

mat. However, on out put, it will, where possi ble, automatically minimize the size of your out put dataset by in tel ligently choosing data storage types that are only as large as nec essary to preserve the in - put precision. Stat/Transfer also allows precise and easy manual control over the storage format of your out put 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 la bor, while at the same time elimi nat ing error.Furthermore, you gain this speed and accuracy without losing flexi bility, since Stat/Transfer allowsyou to select just the variables and cases you want to transfer.

In addition to the standard Windows interface, a command processor allows you to run a transfer in

batch mode, using a command file. This makes it straightforward to set up fully automatic batch pro-cedures for re petitive tasks.

File Types Supported by Stat/Transfer

Version 9 of Stat/Transfer will sup port the following file types:

1-2-3

Access

ASCII - Delimited ASCII - Fixed Format

dBASE and com pati ble formats

Epi Info

Excel

FoxPro

Gauss

HTML ta bles

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JMP

LIMDEP

Matlab

Mineset

Minitab

NLOGIT

ODBC

OSIRIS (read-only)

Paradox

Quattro Pro

R

SAS for Windows and OS/2

SAS for Unix

SAS CPORT (read only)

SAS Trans port

S-PLUS

SPSS Data

SPSS Porta ble

Stata

Statistica

SYSTAT

See the “Sup ported Programs” section of this manual for more information on sup ported versions of each spe cific file type.

2 Introduction

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What’s New in Stat/Transfer

Formats

Stat/Transfer Version 9 has added sup port for the following: Excel 2007

NLOGIT

R

SAS CPORT data sets and catalogs (read only)

SAS PC/DOS 6.04 (read only)

S-Plus through Version 7

Delimited ASCII with a Stat/Transfer SCHEMA file

Other New Features Worksheet pages can be con catenated into a single out put file.

The command processor now allows multi ple in put files to be com bined into a single out putfile.

Value la bel tags and sets can be preserved.

SAS value la bels can now be read from trans port files, CPORT files, data sets and cat alogs.

JMP sup port has been ex panded.

Users can specify any de limiter for ASCII files and can com bine ad jacent blank delimiters.

Generated programs and ASCII files can now preserve in put widths.

In R and S-Plus, factors can now be converted to numeric variables with la bels or to string vari-ables.

The command processor now has a flexi ble syntax for specifying in put and out put ta bles simul-taneously.

Sup port for longer string variables and longer value and variable la bels has been added, so thatStat/Transfer is com pati ble with the limits of all sup ported pro grams.

A built-in logging and FTP facility is now available for trou bleshooting

Full compatiblity with Microsoft Vista

What’s New in Stat/Trans fer 3

Because we make every effort to keep up with changes in the file formats of popular software,

be sure to check the READ.ME file for the latest information on which versions of these pro-

grams are sup ported. There is a shortcut to the READ.ME file from the Windows Start menu,in the Stat/Transfer group.

You can also get current information about Stat/Transfer by visiting our Web site athttp://www.stattransfer.com. You can reach our Web site from the AboutStat/Transfer screen.

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Installation

Installing Stat/Transfer

System requirements

Any com puter ca pa ble of running a 32 bit version of Windows, such as Windows 98, Windows2000, Windows XP or Vista.

5MB of free disk space.

At least 128MB of memory.

Any Windows-com pati ble dis play.

Installation

To install Stat/Transfer, place the Stat/Transfer CD-ROM in your drive. The Setup program shouldstart automatically. If it does not, then from the Start menu, choose Run, and then Browse. Go toyour 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 isC:\PROGRAM FILES\STATTRANSFER9. If you accept this directory and the directory does not exist, theinstallation program will create it for you. If you wish to install the program on another drive or in adirectory with a different name, you can do so by clicking on Browse and then entering the drive anddirectory.

By default, the in stallation program will install not only the base Stat/Transfer ap plication, but alsothe Microsoft com ponents that are necessary to sup port ODBC and Microsoft Access. If you do notuse either format, you can choose not to install these com ponents. If you decide later that you wouldlike to use ODBC or Access, you can run the installation program again and add the necessary com- ponents.

Downloading Stat/Transfer from our Website - Trial VersionIf you have downloaded Stat/Transfer from our Web site, or otherwise obtained a trial version, it willwork as if it were a full version, except that one out of ap proximately sixteen cases will be deletedfrom your out put file. A message box will warn you of this, and the border at the top of theStat/Transfer window will say “Trial Mode”.

To turn the trial version into a fully functioning copy of the software, go to our website and purchasea copy with the ap pro priate license. As soon as the order is processed, you will be sent an activationcode by email.

Activation

After installation is com plete, you may activate your software, using a code which will be found on

your CD envelope or emailed to you. You must have an active internet connection during the activation process.

First, go the About tab and press the Activate Online button. On the next screen, enter your activa-tion code. Then press Next. You will be asked to enter your name, your organization and your emailaddress. After you press Next again, you will be asked to enter a password, which will be used if youre-activate your software on another com puter (see below). You should not use a valuable passwordand you should write it down in your software manual or another place where you can find it if youneed it.

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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 com puter. Once activation is com plete,you must restart Stat/Transfer.

The activation process will also send a “machine finger print” that identifies your particular com puter.If you have a single-com puter license for Stat/Transfer, you are permitted to install it on up to twocom puters, as long as you are the primary user of both com puters (for instance on a home and officecom puter).

In order to install Stat/Transfer on another machine using the same activation code, you will be askedto re-activate the software after you go through the installation procedure. The re-activation processwill ask you for your old password and a new password that identifies your second installation. If you have forgotten or mis placed your old password, you can have it sent to the email address yougave in your initial activation session by clicking on the Forgot your Password? button. Remem ber to write down both your old and new passwords.

If you have any trou ble with the activation process, please contact [email protected] for as sis-tance.

The READ.ME File

The installa tion procedure may also copy a file called READ.ME, which will be a sup plement to thedocumentation. There is a shortcut to the READ.ME file from the Windows Start menu, in theStat/Transfer group.

We make every effort to keep up with changes in the file formats of popular software and theREAD.ME file will contain the latest information on which versions of these programs are sup ported.The file will also contain the latest information on other im provements to Stat/Transfer.

Demo Files

The distri bution disk contains sam ple files in many of the sup ported formats, which you may find usefulin learning about Stat/Transfer’s capabilities.

The file name indicates which program format each file corresponds to. 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 Up date

We periodically post maintenance releases of Stat/Transfer on our Web site to sup port new file for-mats, add features, or to fix problems that have come to our attention. However, we have found thatmany peo ple are not taking advantage of these releases, so that they are using software that is older than it should be. To address this problem, Stat/Transfer will automatically check the Web for up-

dates.

By default, the program will check for new versions once every month, but you can change this op-tion. You can check immediately, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or (if you are running on a computer 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 and se-lect one of the options.

Sup pose you choose Every Month (the default). Each time you start Stat/Transfer, the program willcom pare the cur rent date to the date at which the version was last checked. If the differ ence is less

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than thirty days, nothing will hap pen. If it is 30 days or more, the update program will ask you if youwould 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 versionthat is newer than yours, it will download a descriptive file for you to read. You can then choosewhether 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 com puter.

The READ-ME file will also be downloaded, so that you can check back 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 waitfor an au tomatic check.

To do so, go to the About tab and se lect Right Now. The update program will then check our Website for updates as described above.

Uninstall Pro gram

If for some reason you would like to remove Stat/Transfer from your hard disk, sim ply select theUninstall option from the Start menu Stat/Transfer folder.

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Technical Support

Our website can be found at http://www.stattransfer.com. You can reach our website from theAbout screen. Our general email address, should you want reach us about anything other than sup - port, is [email protected].

Before you seek sup port, please check the online help or look in the online manual and see if the so-lution to your problem can be found there. Be sure to check the “Frequently Asked Questions” sec-tion. You can also check to see if your problem is addressed in the Support section of our website.

If you have a problem that you cannot resolve by these methods, the best way to seek help is by email([email protected]). Please describe your problem and include any error messages you encoun-tered.

You can also seek sup port by using the Log menu tab. This method is particularly helpful if you think you have found a bug in Stat/Transfer, because it is possi ble to automatically send us a com pressedand encrypted copy of the in put file that was causing you problems, as well as a com plete descriptionof 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. You can go to the Aboutmenu tab and look up the exact version of Stat/Transfer that you are using. You can also check for updatesfrom here.

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Using the Stat/Transfer Menus

Version 9 of Stat/Transfer has a standard Windows interface and is extremely sim ple to use.

If you are going to transfer all of the variables and cases in a file, with default out put types, then you

can run the transfer from a single dialog box in which you need specify only the in put and out put filenames.

If you wish to transfer specific variables or cases, or change out put types, you are guided by addi-tional dialog boxes.

Using Windows

In order to use Stat/Transfer for Windows productively, you should be familiar with basic Windowstechniques. This manual assumes that you know how to work in the Windows environment and par-ticularly that you are familiar with the dialog boxes for managing files. If you need help with Win-dows, see your Windows user’s guide.

Stat/Transfer Online Help

The Stat/Transfer online help contains all of the information found in the manual. You can access theonline help by pressing the Help buttons or the ? buttons on the Stat/Transfer menus.

Starting Stat/Transfer

The installation procedure will install a folder for Stat/Transfer on the Programs menu, and a short-cut to Stat/Transfer. A shortcut to Stat/Transfer will also be installed on your desktop.

You can start Stat/Transfer by clicking on the shortcut on your desktop or by clicking on the Start

button, then pointing to Programs. Point to the Stat/Transfer folder and when the folder contents ap- pear, click on the StatTransfer shortcut.

You will see the Transfer dialog box.

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Transfer Dialog Box

When you start up Stat/Transfer, you will see the Transfer dialog box. It is shown below with a typi-cal transfer job entered:

Selecting the Input File For mat

The in put 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 sup ported filetypes. Select an in put file type by clicking on it. The file type will be entered in the Input File Typeline.

You can obtain information on a given file type by clicking on the ? button.

Selecting the Input Data File

The File Specification Line

The in put data file is chosen using the second line of the Transfer dialog box, the File Specificationline.

Click on the Browse button to open a standard Windows file Open dialog box.

If your files are named using the Stat/Transfer standard file extensions, given below, you can use theBrowse con trol to select a file.

To select the in put file, first make sure that the drive and di rectory are the correct ones for your in putfile. If not, change to the correct ones.

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Next, you need to select the cor rect file. Note that a wild card file spec ification, ‘*.ext’ has been cre-ated for the File Name en try, where ‘ext’ is the Stat/Transfer standard extension for the type of in putdata file you have selected.

All of the files in the current di rectory with this extension will ap pear in a list box be low the FileName line. Use this list and click on the name of the file you wish to use

If the file you wish to use as imput does not have a standard extension, then it will not automaticallyap pear and you will need to type the name on the File Name line.

Selecting Worksheet Pages

Whenever you select a worksheet as in put, Stat/Transfer will check to see if mul ti ple pages are pres-ent.

10 Using the Stat/Trans fer Menus Trans fer Dialog Box

Standard File Extensions

1-2-3 WK*

Access MDB

ASCII - Delimited TXT, CSV

ASCII - Fixed Format STS (Schema file)

dBASE and compatibles DBF

Epi Info REC

Excel XLS

FoxPro DBF

Gauss DATHTML HTM*

JMP JMP

LIMDEP LPJ

Matlab MAT

Mineset SCHEMA, SCH

Minitab MTW

NLOGIT LPJ

ODBC [none]

OSIRIS DICT, DCT

Paradox DB

Quattro Pro WQ?, WB?

R RDATASAS for Windows and OS/2 SD2, SAS7BDAT

SAS for Unix SSD*, SAS7BDAT

SAS CPORT STC

SAS Trans port Files XPT, TPT

S-PLUS [none]

SPSS Data Files SAV

SPSS Porta ble Files POR

SPSS ‘Syntax’ and Data Files SPS

Stata DTA

Stata Program and Data Files DO

Statistica STA

SYSTAT SYS

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If more than one page is found, Stat/Transfer will dis play a Worksheet Page selection line below thein put File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box. If your worksheet pages are named, as theyare in Excel, for ex am ple, these names will be used. Otherwise, dummy names, ‘Sheetn‘, will be dis- played, where n gives the num ber of the page.

The name of the first page of the worksheet will ap pear on the Worksheet Page line and, unless youselect another one, will be the page used as the in put data set by Stat/Transfer. If the data you wish touse are on a different page, click on the control arrow and select the ap pro priate page from the listthat ap pears.

The option Concatenate Worksheet Pages in the Options(3) dialog box allows you to com bineworksheet pages into a single out put file. If you check this option, when you name one page, then allof the pages will be read and concatenated into an out put file of any type. This option is ap pro priateif your worksheet file contains many sheets that are iden ti cal in struc ture. These can be then be com- bined into a single out put file.

Selecting Tables for Access and ODBC Input

Whenever you se lect ei ther an Access file or an ODBC data source as in put, Stat/Trans fer will dis - play a Table selection line below the in put File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box.

The name of the first ta ble will ap pear on the Table line and, unless you select another one, will be the ta-

ble Stat/Transfer uses as the in put data set. If the data you wish to use are in a differ ent ta ble, click on thecontrol arrow and select the ap pro priate ta ble from the list that ap pears.

Selecting Members of SAS CPORT and Transport Files

Whenever you select a SAS CPORT or Trans port file as in put, Stat/Transfer will dis play a Memberselection line below the in put File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box.

The name of the first mem ber will ap pear on the Member line and, unless you select another one,will be the mem ber of the SAS file used as the in put data set by Stat/Transfer. If the data you wish touse are in a different mem ber, click on the control arrow and se lect the ap pro priate mem ber from thelist that ap pears.

Most Recently Used File ListsIf you often use the same in put file, you can use the “Most Recently Used” file list to select the file.

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 dis play the list and then clicking on the file you wish to use.

View Input Data

You can now preview your in put data by pressing the View button in the Transfer dialog box. Your data will ap pear in a scrollable grid.

The data can be sorted by any variable by clicking on the variable name. You can navigate to anyrow by entering the row num ber 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 return to the Transfer screen, press Close Viewer.


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Variable Selection Indicator

When the in put file has been specified, Stat/Transfer by default selects all of the variables for transfer. Amessage will ap pear below the in put File Specification line, telling you that all of the variables in thedata set have been selected and giving the total num ber of variables.

If you wish to transfer all of the variables of the in put data set, you need do nothing more to specifythem. If you want to select only some of the variables in the in put data set, click on the Variables tabat the top of the Transfer dialog box.

Selecting the Output File Format

The out put file format is selected in the third line of the dialog box, Output File Type. It is always ad-visable to give the in put file type first, before selecting the out put file type.

Click on the Output File Type control to obtain the list of sup ported file types. Scroll through the listand select a file type by click ing on it.

Available Output Formats

The list of out put file formats will be the same as the list of in put file formats, but with more choices ofversion, and with the following exceptions:

HTML ta bles will ap pear on the out put for mat list, since they are written by Stat/Transfer, althoughthey cannot be used as in put.

OSIRIS files will not ap pear, since they are only read by Stat/Trans fer.

SAS CPORT files will not ap pear, since they are only read by Stat/Trans fer.

When a worksheet has been chosen as in put, then worksheets will not ap pear in the out put for-mat list. These types of conversions, such as a Lotus 1-2-3 worksheet to an Excel worksheet,are not sup ported since it is usually possi ble to do them within your spreadsheet program.

Conversions from one xBASE file type to another are not sup ported since the file formats of dBASE and FoxPro are identical. Thus if a dBASE file is chosen as in put, then FoxPro will notap pear on the out put format list and vice versa.

Stata Output

The two types of Stata files, Stata (Standard) and Stata/SE ap pear in the list of out put file for mats. Bydefault the lastest version of each type will be chosen. You can change the version to be out put by us-ing Output Options in the Options(4) dialog box. See Page 33.

SAS Output

SAS V6 and SAS V7-9 will ap pear in the list of out put files types. You can specify the platform youwish for the out put by using Output Options in the Options(4) dialog box. See Page 33.

Fixed For mat ASCII Choices

If you wish to write fixed format ASCII files, you will see several choices in the list of out put file types:

ASCII - Fixed Format (S/T Schema)

ASCII - Fixed Format + All Programs …

SAS Program + ASCII Data File …

SPSS Program + ASCII Data File

…

Stata Program + ASCII Data File

These are described on Pages 94 - 97.


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Naming the Output File

The out put file name is given on the fourth line of the Transfer dialog box. Since Stat/Transfer sup- plies a default specification for the out put file using the in put file specification, it is im por tant thatyou always specify the in put file name before the out put file name.

Default File Specifications

Once the in put file is chosen, Stat/Transfer will construct an out put, or destination, file specification

which has the same drive, directory and name as the in put file but which has the standard extensionap pro priate for the out put file type (See Page 10 for Stat/Transfer standard extensions). This namewill ap pear in the fourth line, the out put File Specification, of the Transfer dialog box.

Changing the Name

If you do not wish to use the default name sup plied by Stat/Transfer but instead want the destinationfile to have a different name or extension, you can use the Browse control to call up the Save As dia-log box, or you can type the name directly into the Transfer dialog box.

Changing the Directory - the Most Recently Used List

If you wish to be on a different drive or directory, you can type in the drive or directory directly. How-

ever, Stat/Transfer maintains a most recently used list of the di rec to ries to which you have transferred files.You can retrieve this list (which will show the out put file name that ap pears in the out put File Specifica-tion edit box) by clicking on the down arrow to the left of the Output File Specification box.

Table Names for Access and ODBC

Whenever you se lect ei ther an Access file or an ODBC data source as out put, Stat/Trans fer will dis- play a Table selection line below the out put File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box.

The default name of the out put ta ble will be taken from the in put 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 Trans port file as out put, Stat/Transfer will dis play a Member selection

line below the out put File Specification line of the Transfer dialog box.

The default name of the out put mem ber will be taken from the in put file name. To use another name,type it in the Member line.

Running the Pro gram

The Transfer Button

When you have specified in put and out put file types and names (with information on ta ble, mem ber or page, when needed) and, if you wish, you have chosen variables and selected cases, click on theTransfer button and the data will be transferred.


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 sup press this warning in the Options(1) dialog box.

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Simple Transfers

If you wish to transfer everything in the in put data set and you use the out put target types assigned byStat/Transfer, you need only specify the in put and out put 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 to enter any thing ineither the Variables or the Observations dialog box.

Stopping a Trans fer

While data are being trans ferred, the Transfer button is la beled Stop. If you click on it, the transfer job will be aborted. This is useful if you start a lengthy transfer and then realize that something isamiss.

When the trans fer is com plete, a message will ap pear at the bottom of the Trans fer dialog box indi-cating that the transfer is finished and telling you how many cases were transferred.

Resetting Stat/Transfer

Use the Reset control at the bottom of the Transfer dialog box when you wish to do more than onetransfer during a Stat/Transfer session.

Once a transfer has been com pleted, sim ply click on the Reset control and the in put and out put filespecifications will be removed, while the in put and out put file types remain.

Since Stat/Transfer will sup ply a default specification for the out put file using the in put file specifica-tion, it is im portant that you always specify the in put file name before the out put file name.

If you wish to change the in put and out put file types for a new data transfer, it is advisable to changethe in put file type first and then the out put file type.


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Variables Dialog Box

Variable Selection

Automatic Selection of All Variables in the Data Set

When the in put file has been specified in the Transfer dialog box, by default Stat/Transfer selects allof the vari ables for transfer. A message will ap pear in the Transfer dialog box below the in put File

Specification line, telling you that all of the variables in the data set have been selected and givingyou the total num ber of variables.

If you wish to transfer all of the variables of the in put data set, you need do nothing more to specifythem.

Manually Selecting Particular Variables

If you want to select only some of the variables in the in put data set, click on the Variables tab at thetop of the Transfer dialog box. The Variables dialog box will ap pear with a list of all of the vari-ables in the in put data set, as shown below.

By default, all of the variables are selected. Control buttons SelectAll and UnSelectAll allow you toselect or unselect all of the variables.

You can select only some of the variables by going to a particular variable and toggling selection ei-ther on or off for that variable.

You can select a range of variables by holding down the SHIFT key, then clicking on the check boxof the first variable of the range and then clicking on the check box of the last variable of the range.

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Quick Variable Selector

The box in the up per right corner enables you to specify selection criteria for the variables dis playedin the listbox at the left of the page. This is considerably less tedious for long lists of variables thanmanually checking or unchecking them.

Selection conditions can take the form of the wildcard characters ‘*’ or ‘?’ or you can use variableranges. The question mark matches ex actly one character, while the as terisk matches more than one.Unlike DOS 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 (with out 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 exam ple:

factor1,cluster,a2-a10,L1*

followed by a click on the Drop button, will uncheck the variables ‘factor1’, ‘cluster’, ‘a2’ through‘a10’, 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 thelist box.

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 seea message telling you how many vari ables have been selected.

Controlling the Types of Output Vari ables

Target Output Variable Type

Systems differ widely in the num ber and variety of variable types they sup port. When data are trans-ferred from one file type to another, a variable type in the out put format must be assigned to each of the vari ables being transferred.

Note that with Stat/Transfer, nu merical precision is never lost in the transfer process, since all numer-ical variables are stored internally as dou ble precision floating point num bers and are then written outaccording to the assigned variable type.

Stat/Transfer will automatically assign out put types when you select variables for transfer or whenyou choose to have the out put types optimized, as described below. In most cases it is ap pro priate toaccept the out put types that Stat/Transfer chooses. However, there are times that you may wish tooverride these defaults and set the out put types manually.

Target Types Assigned by Stat/Transfer

When assigning default out put variable types, Stat/Transfer attempts to use all of the information at its dis-

posal about the in put data variables in order to preserve nu meric pre cision and, at the same time, min i-mize the size of the out put data set. If you do not choose to have out put types optimized, theninformation about the variables generally comes from the in put file “dictionary,” which describes thevariables. If out put types are optimized, the default behavior, then additional information is obtained byexamining the values of variables. This is discussed on the following page.

When read ing nu merical variables, Stat/Trans fer selects a target out put vari able type based on the in-formation available to it. This target variable type is not used for internal storage during the transfer, but is sim ply the preferred out put type. If this type is not sup ported in the chosen out put file type, the best ap proximation will be chosen.

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The various target out put variable types used by Stat/Transfer are given below.

The target type assigned to each variable can be seen in the Variables dialog box.

To see the target type for a partic ular variable, click once on the vari able name, so that the vari able isthe active one. The vari able name will ap pear above the list of target types and a black dot will ap- pear next to the assigned target type.

If you turn off optimization of target types, then when insufficient information is given about thevari ables in your in put data set to make a spe cific assignment, Stat/Trans fer will generally assign‘float’ as the out put variable type. This is discussed below.

Re mem ber that the target type will not necessarily be the actual out put type. If the target type as-signed to a variable by Stat/Transfer is available as one of the variable types of the out put file format,then that type will be used for the out put. If the assigned target type is not one of the available out put

types, then a for mat of the next larger size will be used.

Optimizing Target Types

Stat/Transfer attempts to produce the smallest possi ble out put data set. On the first pass through thedata, information from the data file dictionary will be used. Unfortunately, for some in put data types,this information is not sufficient to do anything other than set all of the out put variable types to‘float’.

By default, Stat/Transfer will make an additional optimization pass through your data to determinemore information about each variable. This pass will only be performed if the selected out put filetype is such that the out put file could be made smaller by optimization. Some out put file types, suchas 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 exam ple), do not benefit.

Stat/Transfer can deter mine whether any vari ables can be represented as in tegers, and, for those cases,it can determine the small est possi ble inte gral type that can be used to repre sent the data. Further, if avariable cannot be represented by an integral type, Stat/Transfer can automatically determine whetherit can be represented by a float instead of a dou ble without a loss of information. Information on themaximum length of string variables is also accumulated, so that these can be stored in variables of thesmallest possi ble length.

You can change this behavior so that Stat/Transfer does not perform an optimization pass by settingthe option Automatically Optimize Target Types in the Options(1) dialog box to Off .


Stat/Transfer Target Output Variable Types

byte one byte signed integer (-128 to 127)

int two byte signed integer (-32768 to 32767)

long four byte signed integer

float four byte IEEE single precision floating point num ber

dou ble eight byte IEEE dou ble precision floating point num ber

date date stored as serial day num ber (the num ber of dayssince Decem ber 30, 1899)

time fraction of a day (12:00 noon = .5)

date/time floating point num ber (integer part - serial day num ber,fractional part - time)

string character string of a maximum length specified bythe in put file.

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In versions of Stat/Transfer prior to Version 7, the default setting for the Automatically OptimizeTarget Types option was ‘Off’. In order to read ten digit num bers such as Social Security num berscorrectly, the option had to be changed to ‘On’, or the Optimize button had to be clicked, or the output variable type had to be changed manually.

To eliminate this problem, automatic optimization of target types is the default behav ior in Version 7and above. This should cause very little difference in Stat/Transfer’s performance. It will sim plytake a little longer (usually a few seconds) to transfer your data, as Stat/Trans fer has to read it twice.However, with automatic optimization, you are assured that you will never lose precision in your

transfer. Furthermore, Stat/Transfer will only make an optimization pass when out put file variabletypes will benefit from the additional information. For file types such as worksheets or delimitedASCII, it will not bother. Therefore, we suggest you leave optimization turned on.

Note that if you do set Automatically Optimize Target Types to ‘Off’, you can still optimize for anygiven transfer job by clicking on the Optimize button in the Variables dialog box.

Use Doubles Option

Whether you choose to optimize automatically or to do it by pressing the Optimize button in the

Variables dialog box, you still need to decide whether to check the Use Doubles option in order totell Stat/Transfer to put variables with fractional parts into ‘dou ble’ or ‘float’ on out put.

If you choose to use dou bles, Stat/Trans fer will still evalu ate each variable to see if it can be repre-sented as a ‘float’ without a loss of information and will put only those variables that require it into a‘dou ble’. However, unless your data are measured with more than eight or nine digits of precision(survey data, for exam ple, never are), this is an idle exercise and you should not check the Use Dou-bles option.

Automatic Dropping of Constants from Output File

You can tell Stat/Trans fer to auto matically drop vari ables that are constant or missing for a selectedsubset of data. You select this option by checking the Drop Constants check box and then pressingthe Optimize button.

This feature is use ful when the part of a data set selected for transfer contains vari ables with val ues

that are either con stant or missing (such as a pregnancy vari able when only male sub jects are selectedor variables in yearly surveys where the same questions do not ap pear for each year.)

This feature is not likely to be used often, but is extremely valuable when it is needed, since if thedata set has a large num ber of variables, it can be exceedingly tedious to select only the meaningfulones manually.

Changing the Types of the Output Variables

In most cases it is ap pro priate to accept the out put type that Stat/Transfer chooses. However, theremay be times when you wish to specify the output types for some variables, since sometimesStat/Transfer does not have enough information to make the best assignment of an out put variable.

For exam ple, if social security num bers are stored as num bers instead of strings in the in put file,Stat/Transfer will generally convert them into floats on out put, possi bly resulting in the loss of several digits in

the out put data set. You can avoid this loss of key values by specifying that social security num bers be stored as

longs or dou bles on out put.

In some trans fers, you may prefer a larger data set than Stat/Trans fer chooses, with more precision insome or all of the variables. For instance, in the absence of specific information to the contrary,Stat/Transfer will usually chose ‘float’ (four-byte, floating-point) format for numeric variables. How-ever, you may wish to convert these into dou ble precision num bers if you know that they representlarge monetary amounts.

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In other cases, you may be able to create a smaller data set than Stat/Transfer chooses. For exam ple,if you know that your data represent small integers, you may wish to put them into ‘byte’ or ‘integer’variables.

Manually Changing the Out put Types

To choose the out put storage type of selected variables yourself, rather than have it automatically as-signed, click on the Variables tab at the top of the Transfer dialog box. The Variables dialog boxwill ap pear. This screen dis plays a list of all of the vari ables in the input data set.

When you choose any one of these variables, the out put type automatically assigned by Stat/Transfer is dis played on the buttons on the right of the screen. If you wish to change the out put type for a par-ticular variable, click on the new type you want to assign that variable.

Out put variable types can be changed freely for ASCII files and worksheet files. For all other fileformats, 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, conversions between any of the numerictypes and dates or strings are not sup ported.

You should be careful not to choose a smaller type than that chosen by Stat/Transfer unless you aresure you know more about your data than Stat/Transfer does.

Remem ber that you are selecting a “target” type. If the out put data format does not sup port the spe-cific type you have se lected, then Stat/Transfer will use the best match to the type you have selected.

You can determine the out put variable types sup ported for each out put file type by consulting the table given in the section of this manual describing that program.

Handling Mixed Data

If you have mixed data in which some variables need dou bles and others do not (for exam ple, youmight have precisely measured dollar amounts, which should be in dou bles, along with scales of 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 dou bles to reflect the ap pro priate level of measure ment for each variable.

Value Labels for StringsBoth SAS and SPSS sup port the la beling of string variables. Stat/Transfer will auto matically transfersuch value la bels, both to the internal file formats of SAS or SPSS and to the program files written byStat/Transfer to create fixed format ASCII files.


Note: Stat/Transfer stores all num bers internally as eight-byte dou - ble precision num bers, so that numerical precision of dou ble preci-sion in put will be retained if you manually change a target type

from ‘float’ to ‘dou ble’.

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Observations Dialog Box

To reach the dialog box that allows you to select specific cases or records from your data set, click onthe Observations tab at the top of the dialog boxes. This will bring the Observations dialog box tothe front, shown below with an exam ple data set.

Selecting Cases from the Input File

The scrolling text box in the up per 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 in put data setare listed in the box at the right of the screen.

At the bottom of the screen is the case-se lection field in which you enter the case selection, or WHERE, ex pres sion that will specify cases. This expression gives the conditions on the variablesthat will define the subgroup of the data set that you wish t o select.

Variable names can be en tered in this field by select ing their names from the vari able list box. Whenyou dou ble-click on a variable name it will be copied to the case-selection 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, ex pression, has the following form:

WHERE variable ex pres sion relational operator selection condition

Here, variable ex pres sion consists of a single variable or an ex pression involving several variables,relational operator is one of the operators listed below, while selection condition gives specificationsfor the variables to be selected.

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Variable Expression

All of the usual arithmetic operators [+ - / * ( ) ] are available for use in this ex pression.

If variable names used in WHERE ex pressions contain em bedded 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

< less than

> greater than

= greater than or equal

& and

| or , or (used in a series)

! not

The 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 dou ble quotes.

ExamplesExam ples of selection conditions given by WHERE ex pressions are:

where educ = 12 & rate > .2

where (income1 + income2)/famsize < 20000

where income1 >= 20000 | income2 >= 20000

where acct != 2001

where name = smith

where ‘dept-sales’ = “auto loan”

where id % 2 = 0 (which selects all even values of ‘ID’)

where _rownum < 200 (which selects rows 1 - 199)

Wildcards in Selection Conditions

Wildcards ( * or ? ) are available to select subgroups of string variables. For exam ple:

where account = ?3*

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where name = mc* | name = mac*

Note that when the wildcard ‘?’ is used, it re places a single character, while the wildcard ‘*’ re placesan unspecified num ber of characters. Thus the specification ‘?3*’ will select account num bers of anylength that have a three in the second place.

Comma Operator

The comma op erator ‘,’ is used to list different values of the same vari able name that will be used as

selection criteria. It allows you to by pass potentially lengthy OR ex pressions when selecting lists of values. For exam ple, the WHERE ex pression above can be more easily writ ten:

where name = mc*,mac*

Other exam ples 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 com paring it to the special internal vari-able ‘_missing.’

For exam ple

where income != _missing & age != _missing

Preserving WHERE expressions

Ordinarily the WHERE ex pression is cleared after a transfer operation. If you wish to ap ply the sameex pression to several in put files, you can check the box Preserve expression between transfers andyour ex pression will be available for re-use or editing for your next transfer run.

Sampling Functions

Three functions are available for sam pling.

Random Samples

The first function

samp_rand(prop)

allows for sim ple random sam pling. Each case is selected with a proba bility equal to prop.

For exam ple, for a random sam ple of one tenth of a data set, use:

where samp_rand(.1)

Random Samples of Fixed Size

The second function

samp_fixed(sam ple_size,total_observations)

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allows a random sam ple of fixed size to be drawn. When using this function, the first case is drawnwith a proba bility of sam ple_size/total_ob servations, and the succeeding i’th case is drawn with a proba bility of ( sam ple_size - hits) / (total_ob servations - I).

For exam ple, if you had a data set of 1000 cases and wished for a random sam ple of 25 cases, youwould specify:

where samp_fixed(25,1000)

Systematic Random Samples

Finally, a third function

samp_syst(interval)

performs a systematic sam ple of every n’th case af ter a random start. For instance, to take every 6’thcase, use:

where samp_syst(6)

Sampling Subsets of the Input Data

Ex pressions are evaluated from left to right. You can thus sam ple from a subset of your cases by

subsetting them first and then sam pling. For exam ple, to take a random half of high school graduates,use:

where schooling >= 12 & samp_rand(.5)

Sampling Seed and Reproducible Samples

The random num ber generator that provides the basis of these sam pling routines is ‘rand_port()’ inJerry Dwyer, “Quick and Porta ble Random Num ber Generators.” C Users Jour nal , 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 re produc ible sam ple, you can generate it by using the same seed each time. The seed isentered in the Options(1) dialog box and should be a positive integer in the range of one through2,147,483,646.

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Options(1) Dialog Box

To reach the first of the four dialog boxes that allow you to set different options, click on the Op-tions(1) tab at the top of the dialog boxes.

General Options

Ask Permission before Overwriting Files

The option Ask Permission Before Overwriting Files is on by default. If a file, or a da ta base ta ble

exists, you will be prompted for permission before it is overwritten.

If you wish to sup press these warning messages, click on the box to remove the check mark.

Preserve Variable Name and Label Case if Possible

Stat/Transfer always follows the variable-naming rules of the out put file type and will convert in putnames so that they will conform to those rules. It also, by default, tries to convert la bels in keepingwith the “spirit” of the target package. This means that for packages such as S-Plus and Stata,Stat/Transfer will write out variable names and la bels in lower case.

For S-Plus and Stata only, if you want to override this behavior, click on the box to select the optionPreserve Variable Name and Label Case if Possible and the case of your in put variables will be

preserved on out put.

Write New, Numeric Variable Names

When you go from one format to another, by default Stat/Transfer will create legal variable names foryou, based as much as possi ble on the original names. In particular, when you transfer from systemssuch as Paradox, or JMP, which allow long variable names with em bedded spaces, to a system suchas SPSS, which re stricts variable names to eight characters, by default Stat/Trans fer will truncate for you. However, these truncated names often have little re sem blance to the names you started with.Stat/Transfer will use the vari able names as variable la bels, so that your original names are available.

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If you check the option Write new, nu meric variable names. (VN), instead of the default variablenames, Stat/Transfer will create new vari able names of the form V1...VN. This is chiefly useful whendealing with truncated names. If your out put system sup ports variable la bels, it is sometimes better tocheck this option and have Stat/Transfer sim ply create numeric names for your variables. You canthen use the variable la bels 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 setsMany soft ware packages al low users to as sign the same set of value la bels to more than one variable.(In SAS, the term for value la bels is “user-de fined for mat”). For exam ple, a survey with a list of questions with “Yes” and “No” responses could use the same set of value la bels for the variables as-sociated with each of these questions.

If the option Preserve value label tags and sets is checked, the map ping of value la bel sets to multi plevariables will be preserved on out put. If tags are used in the in put file to identify value la bels 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 la beled variable will have a unique value la bel set and the tag usedto identify the set will be constructed from the name of the variable.

Automatically Optimize Target Types

The option Automatically Optimize Target Types allows you to choose whether or not Stat/Transferwill perform a separate optimization pass on your data before it is actually transferred to your out putdata set. This pass will only be performed if the selected out put file type is such that the out put filecould be made smaller by optimization. Optimization should cause very little difference inStat/Transfer’s perfor mance. It will sim ply take a little lon ger (usu ally a few seconds) to transfer your data, as Stat/Trans fer has to read it twice.

This option is set to ‘On’ by default. If you do not wish to have ap pro priate out put file types auto-matically optimized, uncheck the Automatically Optimize Target Types box.

If you turn the Automatically Optimize Target Types option to ‘Off’, then num bers with many sig-

nificant digits may lose precision and your out put file may be larger than necessary.

With automatic optimization, you are assured that you will never lose precision in your transfer. Fur-thermore, Stat/Transfer will only make an optimization pass when out put file variable types will ben-efit from the additional information. For file types such as worksheets or delimited ASCII, it will not bother. Therefore, we suggest you leave optimization turned on.

Note that if you do set Automatically Optimize Target Types to Off , you can still optimize for anygiven transfer job by clicking on the Optimize button in the Variables dialog box.

Use Dou bles

The Use Doubles box can be checked here only if your choose the Automatically Optimize TargetTypes op tion. By default it is off.

Check Use Doubles option if the precision of measurement of any of your variables is greater thaneight or nine decimal digits.

Seed for Sampling Functions

By de fault, the Seed for Sampling Functions option has the value ‘Autogenerate’. In this case, thesam pling functions in WHERE ex pressions 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 se lect a different sam ple.If, in contrast, you need a re producible sam ple, you can enter a seed for the random sam pling process.The seed should be a positive integer in the range of one through 2,147,483,646.

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User Missing Values

You have some control over the way missing values are treated for in put files containing more thanone type. At present the User Missing Values options ap ply to SPSS files (both Data and Porta ble)and OSIRIS. The options are selected with the buttons Use All, Use First or Use None.

Some statistical systems distin guish 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 re search, distinc tions are made between user-defined missing values that rep re sent

structurally missing data (such as answers to pregnancy history questions from male respondents),and those that represent categories of non-response or sim ply the failure of the interviewer to prop-erly collect the data.

Conventionally, zero is used to represent “inap plica ble” missing values, and higher num bers are usedto represent such responses as “don’t know,” “refused” and “not ascertained”. While inap plica bledata 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 multi ple missing values are allowed (as in SPSS, for exam ple) they are all mappedonto missing values on out put. This corresponds to selection of the Use All button.

The map ping to extended missing values on out put is determined by the option below, Map to ex-tended (a-z) missing.

Use First

If you se lect Use First, the first user-defined missing value will be mapped to a missing value and therest will be treated as data and trans ferred intact to the target data set. Use First will often be the mostuseful of the options, since it will allow tabulations in the target package of patterns of non-response.

The map ping to a missing value on out put is determined by the option below, Map to extended (a-z)missing.

Use None

If you choose Use None, then all of the user-defined missing values will be transferred to the targetdata set retaining their in put values.

Note that we believe these options are potentially dan gerous. To avoid the chance of users checking

one of these options and then for getting about it, Stat/Trans fer does not save the settings when op-tions are automatically saved at the end of a ses sion.

Map to extended (a-z) missing values

By default (when this option is left unchecked), all user missing values that are selected according theoptions above (Use All/ Use First/Use None) will go to a sin gle missing value which will then be

converted to the “system” missing value in the target package ( ‘.’ in SAS or Stata, for exam ple,)If the option Map to extended (a-z) missing is checked, user missing values will be mapped, if pos-si ble, to extended missing values in formats that sup port them (SAS, ASCII, or Stata).

If possi ble, the first letter of the value la bel will be used as the missing value. For in stance, if thevalue ‘0’ is a user missing value and is la beled as “inap plica ble”, it will be mapped to ‘.I’. This map- ping will only occur for missing values that are com puted with an equal operator.

If there is no la bel, or if the missing letter has already been used, the missing value will be mappedsequentially to ‘.a’ - ‘.c’.


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Date/Time Formats

Date/Time Formats - Writing

Stat/Transfer gives you considerable control over how dates and times written to out put ASCII files(see below for controlling how dates and times are read.) You can control the formatting for date val-ues, time values and com bined date/time values in the Date, Time and Date/Time edit boxes.

Out put formats that you sup ply are used to convert date and time values to character strings. Eachdate or time part of the out put format has the form ‘%char’. Leading zeros cause the value to printedwith leading zeros. For exam ple ‘%0d’ will print the day of the month with a leading zero.

The characters below are used to create the out put formats. Anything to be printed in the out put char-acter string that is not in the list below, such as commas, spaces or other delimiters, must be given ex- plicitly in the out put for mat.

%a ab breviated weekday

%A full name of weekday

%b ab breviated 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)

%I hour (12 hour clock) (1 - 12)

%m month as num ber (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:

Date: %m/%d/%Y (5/18/1945)

Time: %0H:%0M:%0S (14:05:48)

Date/Time: %m/%d/%Y %0H:%0M:%0S (10/1/1990 02:20:09)

Date/Time Formats - ReadingYou can use these options to control how Stat/Transfer reads dates and time for delimited ASCII input files. In most cases, users will not need to change the default settings in order to read date andtime variables. However, if you do need to do so, you provide a general “scanning” in put format inthe Scan edit box, which is used when an ASCII file is opened for reading. The in put format given in

Scan is used in the initial look at the file, which will determine variable types and also specific for-mats for dates, times, and date/time variables. The default in put for mat is constructed so that it will de-ci pher a num ber of different date and time possi bilities.

Note that if you are using a SCHEMA file to describe your data, the date and time formats given therewill override the formats set here.

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The separate in put for mats for date, time and date/time variables are given in the Date:, Time:, andDate/Time: edit boxes and must match those given in the general scanning in put format. (The entriesin 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 in put format strings given in the Scan:, Date:, Time:, and Date/Time: edit boxes are used toconvert character strings to date/time vari ables. The format strings are read from left to right. If awidth is given ex plicitly for a particular variable, that will be used when reading the character string.Oth er wise, the width will be deter mined by the presence of delimiter characters. Characters in the list

below allow characters in a string to be skipped, if necessary.

If the entire in put string is not matched by the format string or if the resulting time or date is notvalid, the variable will be set to missing.

Each date and time part of the in put for mat, as well as some spe cial characters, have the form ‘%char’ or ‘% Xchar ‘, where the modifier X is used to determine field widths.

The two differ ent cases of ‘% Xchar ‘ are:

%numberchar When a num ber precedes the speci fication char acter, char , it specifies the fieldwidth to be used. The next number characters in the in put string are scanned for the spec ifieddate or time.

%:delimchar If there is a colon and any sin gle character, delim, preceding the specificationcharacter, char , then the field to be read is taken to be all the characters up to but not includingthe given delimiter character, delim. The delimiter itself is not scanned or skipped by the for-mat, and therefore must be entered ex plicitly in the in put format or ex plicitly skipped. (Notethat the modifier :delim need not be used routinely, since numeric and al pha formats will auto-matically stop reading when they reach a delimiter.)

The characters used to create the in put formats are listed below. Anything to be read from the in putcharacter string that is not in the list below, such as commas or other delimiters, must be given ex plic-itly in the in put format. White space (spaces, tabs, carriage returns, and so on) is ignored in the in putformat string.

%c skip a single character (see also %w)

% N c skip N characters

%$c skip the rest of the in put string

%d in put day of the month

%H in put hour

%m in put month, as integer or as al pha string. (If al pha string, case does not matter, and any substring of a month that distinguishes it from the other months will be accepted.)

%M in put minute

%n in put milliseconds

%N in put milliseconds or tenths or hundredths of seconds.

(If no field width is given and the in put string has a field width of three, then in put will be millisec onds. A field width of 1, either given ex plicitly or

inferred from the in put string, will cause input of 10ths of a second; a width of 2 will cause in put of 100ths of a second.)

%p in put strings defining ‘am’ and ‘pm’(Matching is the same as for months.)

%S in put seconds

%w skip a whitespace delimited word (see also %c)


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%y in put year.(If less than 100, the century changeover year is

used to de termine the actual year.)

%Y in put year as found in the in put string.

%%,%[,%] in put the ‘%’, ‘[’, and ‘]’ characters from the in put string.

[...] optional specification.(Text and specifications within the brack ets will be read if present in the in put string, but need not be there. )

The default format for scanning times in text files is:

[% m[/]%d[/][,]%y] [%H:% M[:%S[.% N]][% p][[(]%3c[)]]]

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 readin

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