NAME

       extract_metadata - read column metadata from SPSS and Stata binary files, and format it as
       JSON

SYNOPSIS

       extract_metadata input-file output-file

DESCRIPTION

       extract_metadata reads column metadata from existing binary data files, so  that  readstat
       can  produce  new,  column-compatible binary files from CSV input files. Both programs use
       JSON as a metadata interchange format.

       The input-file should be a file with one of the following extensions:

       dta    Stata binary file, version 104 or newer

       sav    SPSS uncompressed binary file

       zsav   SPSS compressed binary file

       In all cases, output-file should end in .json.

EXAMPLE

       Suppose you have a Stata file with  last  year's  survey  data,  and  want  to  produce  a
       compatible Stata file containing this year's survey data. First, extract the metadata:

              extract_metadata last-year.dta survey-metadata.json

       Now apply it to this year's data, which is stored in a CSV file:

              readstat this-year.csv metadata.json this-year.dta

       The first line of the CSV file should contain column names which match the column names in
       last-year.dta. If everything went well, your new binary data set is now  stored  in  this-
       year.dta.

OPTIONS

       None.

AUTHOR

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

                                         01 February 2019                     EXTRACT_METADATA(1)