Re: st: Problems imputting data

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

Almost certainly the problem lies in your Excel files. Many Excel
users mix numeric and text cells in the same column and Stata has only
limited scope for dealing with that. In essence, you already know
that, but there is no magic fix.

An old FAQ may still be relevant:

http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data-management/converting-excel-files/
Nick
njcoxstata@gmail.com


On 8 May 2013 09:28, Miguel Angel Duran <maduran@uma.es> wrote:
> Thanks, Phil and Reut, for your help. Nevertheless, my version is Stata 10,
> so although -import excel- does not seem to be available. I have also tried
> to save the Excel file as a .csv file (comma delimited); then, -insheet-
> just recognizes one variable (ie, all the variables are put together).
>
> By the way, I am trying to import about 20 files. Some of them have been
> imported without problems. In other cases, I have been able to import some
> observations up to a certain number and then copy+paste the rest. In other
> cases copy+paste does not work, or the observations not imported are not the
> last ones.
>
> Thank you in advance again.
>
> Miguel.
>
> -----Mensaje original-----
> De: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] En nombre de Phil Schumm
> Enviado el: martes, 07 de mayo de 2013 16:21
> Para: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Asunto: Re: st: Problems imputting data
>
> On May 7, 2013, at 7:08 AM, Miguel Angel Duran wrote:
>> Hi, Statalisters. I am trying to import data into Stata. I have used two
> methods. First, I have tried to import from a .txt file using -insheet-.
> Second, I have tried to copy and paste from an Excel file on the data
> editor. Nevertheless, in both cases, although the original file has 8303
> observations, Stata just gets about a third of them (and not the first
> third). Using the second method Stata informs me that "You attempted to
> paste one or more string values into numeric variables. The contents of
> these cells, if any, are unchanged".
>>
>> Will anyone please help me to know what is going on and how I can solve
> this?
>
>
> Assuming you are using Stata 12, you should use the -import excel- command.
> Not only is this easier, but it will avoid some of the problems you can
> encounter with the methods you describe above.  Try that first, and if you
> are still having problems, let us know.
>
>
> -- Phil
>
>
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