How to prevent stcmd if installed Stat/Transfer is a trial version

[Bert Lloyd]

Dear Statalisters,

I am using the excellent user-written stcmd from SSC, together with Stat/Transfer 12, in a do-file to convert input data of various types to Stata.

One potential issue with my workflow is that trial versions of Stat/Transfer randomly delete observations, so I would like my do-file to check whether the user's installed Stat/Transfer is a trial version or not, and only perform the conversion if S/T is licensed.

Is there any way to do this? I've perused the help file for stcmd, as well as the S/T user manual, and did not find any leads.

Many thanks,
BL

PS:
stcmd from SSC, Distribution-Date: 20151016
Stat/Transfer 12 for 64-bit
Stata 13.1 SE on Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

[Clyde Schechter]

If you are able to manually check the StatTransfer that is installed on the computer, you can just open its GUI and go to the About tab. About two thirds of the way down, if you have a full license it will say "Status: License OK." But I don't know of any way to automate this process and check it from within a running Stata program.

You might want to contact Circle Systems about this. They might know a way, and I have always found their customer support to be excellent.

[Bert Lloyd]

Thanks Clyde.

My concern is related to the case when others on my team are using my code - I can't be sure in advance what the status of their S/T will be.

[Steve Samuels]

I think it would be simpler to ask everyone on the team to check by following Clyde's instructions.

[Bert Lloyd]

I think it would be simpler to ask everyone on the team to check by following Clyde's instructions.

Your team members must be more conscientious than mine.

But I guess that will have to do. Thanks.

[Sergiy Radyakin]

Bert Lloyd

paradoxically, the problem that you are solving is exactly the answer to your question.

In order to programmatically determine whether StatTransfer is in trial mode or registered mode, create a dummy dataset and convert it with StatTransfer, e.g. from tab-delimited to Stata format. Then examine the number of records in the file you've read. If it is smaller then the number of records written, this points to the trial mode. According to the downloads page StatTransfer skips "one out of about every sixteen cases". So if your data file contains a few hundred lines, the difference will be apparent.

Best, Sergiy Radyakin

[Clyde Schechter]

Sergiy Radyakin : Brilliant! How obvious once you see it, yet it eluded so many of us for so long.

[Bert Lloyd]

Sergiy, that's fantastic, thanks so much.