Re: st: Appending files when variables differ in their types

[Steven Dubnoff <sdubnoff@circlesys.com>]

At 12:04 PM 10/9/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> This is a relatively simple question. I am appending data from the same survey
> for different years...

Since you are coming from dBASE with Stat/Transfer, you may want to handle 
this in Stat/Transfer.  I suggest that you first go from dBASE to delimited 
ASCII, which will give you much more control over variable types.

Before you transfer your data to ASCII, I suggest you set the "String Quote 
Character" to blank.  That  will ensure that numbers entered as strings 
remain as numbers when you read them back.  (This technique also works for 
troublesome  Excel files, where numbers sometimes end up as strings for 
reasons known only in Redmond).

Then append the ASCII file either using an editor or a DOS command, e.g. 
"copy file1.csv+file2.csv out.csv".  Then use Stat/Transfer to move the 
appended files to Stata.  At that point, you can review the types on the 
"Variables" tab and change them if you wish.

Best,

Steve




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Steven Dubnoff              sdubnoff@circlesys.com
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