Opening CDC NHIS ASCII.dat file

[Haleigh Miller]

Hello! I am working with CDC National Health Interview Survey data and having problems opening the ASCII data file. I am working with the Sample Adult File, found here (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/nhis_2014_data_release.htm) towards the bottom of the page.

There is a sample stata statement (ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statist...14/personsx.do), but I am not sure what to do with it and cannot figure out how to open this file! Any help appreciated.

[Clyde Schechter]

So, assuming that from the first link you downloaded the personsx.zip file (ASCII Data under the Person File heading at that link), as well as that do-file, put them both in whichever directory you want to work with for this project. Unzip the zip file and you will get a file called persons.dat. Then double click on the personsx.do file's icon to launch Stata with that file opened in the do editor. Click on the "execute" icon (the rightmost one in the toolbar) and the do file will run and create a Stata data file called persons.dta. Then you're all set to work with that data file thereafter.