Accidentally saved as txt file

[tim bradshaw]

Hello
I imported a txt file and then accidentally overwrote it as a txt file. I did not change any of the file’s contents, but the save command has resulted in an apparently corrupt txt file full of ‘gibberish’ characters.

Here's my code:

import delim using “C:\myfolder\myfile.txt”, delim(“|”)
save “C:\myfolder\myfile.txt”, replace

Is there any chance of restoring the original content, which presumably is still in there somewhere amongst all the gibberish characters?

Any advice greatly appreciated

With thanks

[tim bradshaw]

Problem solved!
I was trying to open the new txt file using ‘import delim’ instead of ‘use’.

[Bruce Weaver]

The -save- command saves the data as a Stata data set even if you specify .txt as the extension. You need to use -export delimited-. Here's an example:

/* txt file contains:  
v1|v2|v3|v4|v5|v6
1|2|3|a|b|c
*/

clear *
import delim using "C:\temp\junk.txt", delim("|")
save "C:\Temp\myfile.txt", replace

use "C:\Temp\myfile.txt"
export delimited using "C:\Temp\MyFile2.txt", delimiter("|") replace
list

Here is the output from the final -list- command:

. list

     +-----------------------------+
     | v1   v2   v3   v4   v5   v6 |
     |-----------------------------|
  1. |  1    2    3    a    b    c |
     +-----------------------------+