Richard Williams ([email protected]) asked about the
data file formats of Stata 8 and Stata 9:
> Something I don't believe has been asked yet: Are the file formats of
> Stata 8 and Stata 9 identical? I hope so. If not, somebody once proposed
> that the last update of an older version should include the ability to
> convert files from the new version. I think that is a very good idea.
The file formats of Stata 8 and Stata 9 are identical, with one
caveat. In Stata 8, value labels had a maximum length of 244
characters (Stata/SE) or 80 characters (Intercooled Stata).
In Stata 9, value labels have a maximum length of 32,000
characters. When reading a Stata 9 dataset, Stata 8 is
"smart" enough to not read in any value labels that would
exceed the Stata 8 limit.
The -saveold- command in Stata 9 (as in Stata 8) will save
the current dataset in Stata 7 format.
Alan
([email protected])
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