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| From | "Sears Generic" <searsgeneral@indy.rr.com> |
| To | <statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu> |
| Subject | st: reading a txt file that loops |
| Date | Sat, 16 Apr 2011 08:35:21 -0400 |
Are there any shortcuts to reading a data file that has the following format other than to reorganize the data before importing? The data file is for population by year by geographic location (e.g. United States, Indiana, then 3 counties in Indiana). "FIPS" is a unique identifier for each county. The problem is that the text file loops (i.e. only provides 4 decades of data before starting over) on a new line. In the example below I've reduced the issue to the United States, Indiana, and 3 counties, but the full dataset has every county for every state so the looping does not recur in a consistent way. Any suggestions would be appreciated. FIPS 1990 1980 1970 1960 00000 248709873 226545805 203211926 179323175 United States 18000 5544159 5490224 5193669 4662498 Indiana 18001 31095 29619 26871 24643 Adams County 18003 300836 294335 280455 232196 Allen County 18005 63657 65088 57022 48198 Bartholomew County FIPS 1950 1940 1930 1920 00000 151325798 132164569 12320262 106021537 United States 18000 3934224 3427796 3238503 2930390 Indiana 18001 22393 21254 19957 20503 Adams County 18003 183722 155084 146743 114303 Allen County 18005 36108 28276 24864 23887 Bartholomew County * * For searches and help try: * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/