Will Stata 14+ be able to write Stata 11/12 datasets?

[Roger Newson]

Fellow Statalisters (especially StataCorp):

I have a query re Stata Versions 14+, namely, will they always be able to write Stata Version 11/12 datasets? (I realise that Stata Version 13 can do this using saveold.)

I ask because, when I refer to the documentation for read.dta (the R module to read Stata datasets) in my version of R (the very latest Version 3.1.1, aka Sock it to Me), I find (under Description) that read.dta: "Reads a file in Stata version 5–12 binary format into a data frame.
Frozen: will not support Stata formats after 12."

Arguably, in an ideal world, somebody in the R community would update read.dta to input Stata Version 13 datasets (complete with strls). However, free software doesn't always work that way. This might make life difficult for people like me, who might want to write recombinant Stata do-files with embedded R code using the SSC package rsource, exchanging data between Stata and R with minimal trouble. So, if Stata Versions 14+ will not be able to produce datasets in Stata Versions 11/12 (and therefore compatible with the frozen read.dta), then we might possibly even have to resort to Stat/Transfer to convert datasets between Stata and R. If this is likely to be the case, then it would be useful for us to be ready for such a development in advance.

Best wishes (and thanks in advance)

Roger

[Richard Williams]

It may depend on whether Stata 14 has a new file format. If not, then saveold should continue to save in 11/12 format. If the format is new then it would be a break with past practices for saveold to save in anything other than Stata 13 format. But, an -asversion- option for saveold is on the Stata 14 wish list.

[Roger Newson]

Thanks Richard. Is the asversion(#) option just on your wish list (and mine), or is it more official than that?

[Richard Williams]

Nothing official. I think it has been on somebody's wishlist for the last several versions of Stata.

[Richard Williams]

You can also pray for Sergiy Radyakin's continued good health. He has done more to bring free file conversion to the masses than anybody. See, for example,

http://www.radyakin.org/transfer/saveto9/cs/index.htm

http://radyakin.org/transfer/use13/use13.htm

If anything happens to Sergiy though, more people may have to break down and buy Stat/Transfer. Or else save all your old versions of Stata, so you can keep on saving and resaving files in older formats.

[Nick Cox]

See http://www.statalist.org/forums/foru...tata-13-differ for related discussion.

[Sarah Edgington]

What's the issue with using stat transfer? Cost or just the need to change how you're doing things?
I have a number of dofiles that call stat transfer using the shell command. The way I'm doing it does require writing the stat transfer command file ahead of time, but even that could conceivably be automated with a small amount of effort and the file command.

[Clyde Schechter]

Actually, for most applications you can use Stat Transfer even more easily through Roger Newson's -stcmd- package (which, by the way, comes bundled with Stat Transfer, and is also available on his website and on SSC.) -stcmd-, as far as I know, will not work if you require special settings for Stat Transfer, but in my experience that comes up negligibly often. And Stat Transfer is one of the cheapest software packages around that does anything useful. I really consider it one of the best values for the money out there. (No, I don't own stock in the company.)

[Richard Williams]

I also love Stat/Transfer. I don't use it that often but it is a godsend when I do. But, a lot of people have one-shot tasks and it isn't really worth it to them to pay even a small amount for Stat/Transfer.

If anyone is interested, here is a draft of a page I have been working on listing different file conversion options that I am aware of. Comments welcome.

http://www3.nd.edu/~rwilliam/stats/s...nversions.html

[Roberto Ferrer]

If anyone is interested, here is a draft of a page I have been working on listing different file conversion options that I am aware of. Comments welcome.

http://www3.nd.edu/~rwilliam/stats/s...nversions.html

I like the idea Richard.

pandas in Python can read Stata files (they claim all the way up to Stata 13 in their latest release 0.14.1) and also write (to Stata 12, they say). Importing/exporting to other formats is possible. See http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/io.html. Not exactly a file conversion tool, but it might be someone's last hope.

[Sergiy Radyakin]

@Richard: I am supporting the idea, and have a few suggestions that I will share per private messaging, besides that the publicly announced -usemtw- and tab2dta could probably be added to your list.

For those who are looking for Stata-to-Stata data transfer and/or concerned about the differences in Stata datasets versions the following page might be a starter:
http://radyakin.org/transfer/stata2stata/


Best, Sergiy Radyakin

[Roger Newson]

If Clyde (or anybody else) wants to use special settings for Stat/Transfer via stcmd, then they need to either (a) use the switches available and described under help stcmd,, (b) use a Stat/Transfer command file by typing

stcmd mystcommands.cmd

or (c) use a profile.stcmd file in your Stat/Transfer in your Stat/Transfer program-files folder, if you want to use the same special settings all the time (see the Stat/Transfer .pdf manual).

Best wishes

Roger

[Clyde Schechter]

Thanks, Roger. That's useful!

[Jeph Herrin]

Stat/Transfer is an excellent tool, but it would be more helpful, especially regarding the original post here, if among the output types were older Stata versions. Interesting that I can output Sas version 6, 7, 8, or 9 format files, multiple versions of Excel, Systat, Statistica, etc - but only the most current version of Stata. An awkward omission, no?

[Richard Williams]

Stat/Transfer can save Stata versions all the way back to versions 4/5. When running Stat/Transfer, click options, then click Output Options (1). It would be nice if this feature wasn't buried, but it can be done. Once you set the version I think that becomes the default from then on.

I just set version 11 as my default. I figure i could use -saveold- if i wanted version 12. Version 11 (which also works with 10) seems to give users of older versions of Stata a fighting chance of being able to read the file.