Importing fixed width data using infix - dictionary invalid

[Greg Saldutte]

Hello,

I am importing fixed with data from a .txt file. Here is my code:

cd "...\1973-09-to-2014-06\non-dod\status"

infix id 1-9 name 10-32 filedate 33-40 agency 41-44 ///
station 45-53 age 54-59 educationlevel 60-61 ///
payplan 62-63 grade 64-65 los 66-71 occupation 72-75 ///
occ_cat 76 pay 77-82 supervisory_status 83 appointment 84-85 ///
schedule 86 nsftp ind 87 using Status_Non_DoD_1973_09.txt

Stata returns the error that the dictionary is invalid. I have verified that the .txt file is in the working directory, so I'm unsure why I get this error.

Thank you.

[Leonardo Guizzetti]

Hi Greg,

It would have been helpful if you could have posted some example data of what you wanted to import, as you are asked to do so in the FAQ.

Here is a toy example. Suppose I have a file, test.txt with the following contents:

123456789 bob 37 71.5

Then I run the following code to import the file.

infix id 1-9 str name 11-13 age 15-16 height 18-21 using test.txt

My code is correctly imported, as shown by -list-

             id   name   age   height  
  1.   1.23e+08    bob    37     5.25

As I read your command, there are (at least) two errors, the second of which is causing Stata to complain.

1) name is invariably going to be a string, so you will need to tell Stata this fact by specifying -str name 10-32-. This is demonstrated in the syntax specification for the -infix- command and throughout the help file. The same will apply to any other string variables. Note, if you omit -str- then Stata will silently impute a missing value and will warn you, but continue with importing the data.

2) the column index(es) are missing for the variable nsftp in -schedule 86 nsftp ind 87-. This is what Stata is complaining about.

[Greg Saldutte]

Thank you Leonardo. The problem was solved when I specified string.