Stat/Transfer by Circle Systems

Ever had a colleague send you an XYZ file that you wanted in ABC format—say an SPSS file that you wanted in Stata format or the other way around?

Stat/Transfer makes it easy to move data among the different spreadsheet and statistical programs by providing a fast and reliable way to convert files from one format to another.

Stat/Transfer provides an extremely fast, reliable, and automatic way to exchange data between different spreadsheet and statistics programs. Stat/Transfer was developed by Circle Systems, Seattle, Washington, and may be purchased through StataCorp.

Stat/Transfer 11 supports all Stata datasets, from Stata 1 through the current release—Stata 12.

Stat/Transfer 11 is available for Windows (both 64-bit and 32-bit), Mac OS X, Linux (both 64-bit x86 and 32-bit), and Solaris.

Stat/Transfer supported programs

1-2-3 Microsoft Access (Versions 2.0 through Office XP version) dBASE (all versions) Delimited ASCII Delimited ASCII with a Stat/Transfer SCHEMA file Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Schemas  Epi Info Excel worksheets (all versions, including Excel 2010) Fixed format ASCII FoxPro GAUSS (Windows and Unix) JMP LIMDEP MATLAB MATLAB Seven Datasets Mineset Minitab 14 (read only)  MPLUS (write only)  NLOGIT ODBC data sources (Oracle, Sybase, Informix, etc.) Open Document Spreadsheets

Paradox Quattro Pro for DOS and Windows R RATS  S-PLUS (now supported through version 7) SAS CPORT datasets and catalogs (read only) SAS for Unix—HP, IBM, Sun SAS for Unix—DEC Alpha SAS for Windows and OS/2 SAS PC/DOS 6.04 (read only) SAS Transport SAS Value Labels SAS Version 7–9 SPSS through Version 19  SPSS Datafiles (Windows and Unix) SPSS Portable Files Stata (all versions, including 12)  Statistica Versions 7–8 (Windows only) SYSTAT (Windows and Mac) Triple-S Survey Interchange Format

New in Stat/Transfer 11

Stat/Transfer Version 11 has many new and improved features:

• New options for ASCII and text files.
  You can now choose to skip rows at the top of a file. You can also optionally read variable labels from the row after the field names, typically the second row.
• Read variable labels from worksheet files.
  You can now optionally read variable labels from the row following the field names in worksheets.
• Time series options.
  An extensive set of options are available for controlling how time-series data are read from file formats such as RATS and how time-series data are written to programs which expect rectangular data, such as SAS and Stata.
• ODBC/Access date and time sensing.
  You can now control the number of rows that are read to sense whether date/time values in your database files should be read as dates, times or date/time values.
• Improved character substitution.
  When exact character matches are not possible in your output character set, improved substitution algorithms usually find acceptable alternatives for single-byte characters.
• New platforms.
  Stat/Transfer is available for 64-bit Windows and Mac OS X Lion.

Stat/Transfer Version 11 has added support for the following formats:

• Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Schemas
• Minitab 14 (read only)
• MPLUS (write only)
• Open Document Spreadsheets
• RATS
• SPSS 19
• Stata 12

Stat/Transfer features

• Worksheet pages can be concatenated into a single output file.
• Value label tags and sets can be preserved.
• SAS value labels can now be read form transport files, CPORT files, datasets, and catalogs.
• JMP support has been expanded.
• Users can specify any delimiter for ASCII files and can combine adjacent black delimiters.
• Generated programs and ASCII files can now preserve input widths.
• In R and S-Plus, factors can now be converted to numeric variables with labels to string variables.
• Support for longer string variables and longer value and variable labels has been added; Stat/Transfer is compatible with the limits of all supported programs.
• A built-in logging and FTP facility is now available for troubleshooting.
• Data viewer allows you to preview data in a scrollable grid before you perform your transfer.
• Option to control the version and "flavor" of the output Stata dataset that will be written by Stat/Transfer.
• Web self-update (Windows version).
• Wildcards for tables and worksheet pages (move multiple tables in a single command).
• Complete online documentation.
• Preserves all of the precision of your data.
• Support for extended (.A–.Z) missing values in Stata and SAS.
• Produces HTML tables from data.
• Automatically selects appropriate output dataset storage types.
• Automatically optimizes output dataset storage types.
• Allows manual control over output dataset storage types.
• Produces missing values automatically.
• Preserves variable names, value labels, and variable labels.
• Supports value labels for string variables.
• Allows selection of subsets of variables and cases for transfer.
• Allows choice of worksheet page.
• Runs in both menu-driven and batch modes.
• Optionally enter transfer commands with copy-like syntax.
• Optionally build batch jobs and shortcuts for repetitive transfers.
• Extensive options for customization.
• Handles up to 8,000 variables; no limit on observations.

Command processor features

• The command processor now has a flexible syntax for specifying input and output tables simultaneously.
• The command processor now allows multiple input files to be combined into a single output file.
• Automatic wildcard transfers (e.g., copy *.dta *.sd2).
• Build batch jobs and shortcuts for repetitive transfers.
• Directly zip files or run other DOS or Windows programs.
• Enter transfer commands with a copy-like syntax.
• Keep or drop processing for field selection.
• Save ODBC information for prompt-free connections.

Date/time support

• Time and date-time types.
• User-configurable formats for both reading and writing.
• Fully Year-2000 (and Year-1600) compliant.

User interface features

• Quick variable selection using wildcards and ranges.
• More control over how worksheet ranges and field names are read.
• Easy output path selection using a most-recently-used list.
• More control over how user-missing values are processed.