Error in dictionary file

[Irene Solmone]

I have a dataset in .txt, which I have to translate with a dictionary file. I have written the dictionary file according to instructions from the owners of the dataset. However, there seems to be a problem with one variable (that I know of, but there might be other problems too). The variable STDIND presents with missing observations (about 80% of all observations), even though it should not. If I run the code in R (written in R language) it works, without giving me missing values, so there must be a problem with my Stata code (and I have to use Stata). This is how I wrote the dictionary file:

dictionary {
_column(1) int    ANNO    %4f "ANNO"
_column(5) int    TRIM    %1f "TRIM"
_column(6) int    REG    %2f "REG"
_column(8) int    numcff    %2f "SG4"
(...)
_column(587) int    STDFAM    %6f "STDFAM"
_column(593) int    STDIND    %6f "STDIND"
_column(599) int    NN2    %1f "NN2"
_column(600) int    RPN2    %1f "RPN2"
_column(601) int    TF    %2f "TF"
_column(603) int    TN2    %1f "TN2"
_column(604) int    F0_14    %1f "F0_14"
_column(605) int    CP0_7    %1f "CP0_7"
_column(606) int    CITTAD    %1f "CITTAD"
_column(607) int    WAVQUA    %1f "WAVQUA"
_column(608) int    nasita    %1f "SG13"
_column(609) int    citita    %1f "SG16"
_column(610) int    annres    %3f "SG18"
_column(613) int    NASSES    %3f "NASSES"
_column(616) int    CITSES    %3f "CITSES"
_column(619) int    RAPSES    %3f "RAPSES"
}

And this is the code I used to apply the dictionary file (2005_Q2_dict.dct is the dictionary file, sta_2005_2.txt is the dataset in txt):

clear
infile using "$PathDict/2005_Q2_dict.dct", using("$Path05Q2/sta_2005_2.txt")

Is there a problem with the code? Am I doing something wrong, or missing something?

[William Lisowski]

To start on solving this problem, try changing

_column(593) int    STDIND    %6f "STDIND"

to

_column(593) str6   STDIND    %6s "STDIND"

to read STDIND as a string. Then, look at the values of STDIND to see what does not look like a number. Perhaps

tab STDIND if real(STDIND)==.

will help you find values of STDIND that Stata translates into missing values when converting text to numeric values.

[Irene Solmone]

Thank you so much!! This works.

[Irene Solmone]

William Lisowski could you tell me how to determine whether to choose int or str, when I have numeric values (if there is some sort of criteria)?

[William Lisowski]

This works.

I don't think you understood what is suggested in post #2.

Of course reading STDIND as a string "works" in the sense that it doesn't create any missing values when the contents of columns 593-598 contain something that Stata cannot interpret as a number. But if STDIND is supposed to have numeric values, then having it as a string does not "work" if you are need to use it as a variable in your analysis.

If STDIND "has numeric values" then you must get it to be a numeric variable. It is most convenient to read it as a number, but if that is not possible, you will have to read it as a string and then perhaps change certain values before converting the string to a number. How you do that depends on what values it has. What were the results when you ran

tab STDIND if real(STDIND)==.

You also wrote in post #1

there seems to be a problem with one variable (that I know of, but there might be other problems too)

You will learn of all potential problems by running

misstable summarize, all

after your data has been read to find out what numeric variables have missing values, and a few details about the values each takes.

[Irene Solmone]

Yes I understood what you meant, but thank you for the suggested command!