NAME

       readstat - read and write data set files from SAS, SPSS, and Stata

SYNOPSIS

       readstat input-file

       readstat [-f] input-file output-file

       readstat [-f] input-file metadata-file output-file

DESCRIPTION

       readstat  converts  data  set files from popular statistics packages stored in both plain-
       text and binary formats.

       In the first invocation style, readstat displays metadata from input-file,  including  the
       row  count,  column count, text encoding, and timestamp.  input-file should be a file with
       one of the following extensions:

       sas7bdat
              SAS binary file, created with SAS version 7 or newer

       xpt    SAS portable file, version 5 or version 8, created with the SAS XPORT command

       sav    SPSS uncompressed binary file

       zsav   SPSS compressed binary file

       por    SPSS portable file

       dta    Stata binary file, version 104 or newer

       If the row count cannot be determined from the file header, which is  sometimes  the  case
       with  SPSS binary files and always the case with SPSS portable files, readstat will report
       a value of -1.

       In the second invocation style, readstat converts input-file to output-file,  e.g.  a  SAS
       portable  file  to  a  Stata  binary  file.   In addition to the preceding extension list,
       output-file may  have  extension  csv  or  xlsx,  which  creates  a  CSV  or  Excel  file,
       respectively.

       The  third invocation style is used when additional metadata about the input file, such as
       value labels or column widths, is stored in a separate file.  Several  types  of  metadata
       file are supported:

       sas7bcat
              SAS  binary  "catalog"  file, created with SAS version 7 or newer, containing value
              labels

       json   JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file, containing column metadata that  cannot  be
              gleaned   from   the   input  CSV.  For  details,  see  the  manual  page  for  the
              extract_metadata command.

       dct    Stata dictionary file, containing the data layout and column metadata for a  plain-
              text input file.

       sps    SPSS  command file, describing the data layout and column metadata for a plain-text
              input file.

       sps    SAS command file, describing the data layout and column metadata for  a  plain-text
              input file.

       The last three formats can be used for both fixed-width and delimiter-separated (e.g. tab-
       separated) input files. These are commonly distributed along with  plain-text  ASCII  data
       sets.

       Both input and output formats are implied by the file extension.

OPTIONS

       -f     Overwrite any existing output-file.

BUGS

       SAS binary files created by readstat do not open with current versions of SAS.

       The finer details of format strings (e.g. "%8.2g") are not properly converted between file
       formats.

AUTHOR

       Copyright (C) 2012-2019 Evan Miller, and others where indicated.

                                         23 January 2019                              READSTAT(1)