SAS to SPSS transfers

[Tanya Temkin]

I regularly work in SPSS with large files created by programmers in SAS,
which are then split into several Excel files (since total # of records
exceeds the # of records a single Excel file can hold) and forwarded to
me.  I then open and save the Excel files as separate SPSS files before
merging these into a big SPSS file. This is cumbersome and time-consuming
and I'm looking for tools to streamline the process.

A SAS-using friend recommended Stat/Transfer.  Any experience out there
with Stat/Transfer or any other application to directly transfer large
data files from SAS to SPSS and vice versa? (I'm using SPSS 14.0 and my
colleagues use SAS 8.x).

Thanks,

Tanya Temkin

Research Associate
AACC Reporting
Northern California Regional Office
The Permanente Medical Group


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[Simon Phillip Freidin]

StatTransfer is okay.

You can read SAS 8 files directly into SPSS
Interactive :
File -> Open (change type to "SAS Long file name (sas7bdat)"), select file

or command language using the command "GET SAS"

At 10:33 AM 1/11/2006, you wrote:

>I regularly work in SPSS with large files created by programmers in SAS,
>which are then split into several Excel files (since total # of records
>exceeds the # of records a single Excel file can hold) and forwarded to
>me.  I then open and save the Excel files as separate SPSS files before
>merging these into a big SPSS file. This is cumbersome and time-consuming
>and I'm looking for tools to streamline the process.
>
>A SAS-using friend recommended Stat/Transfer.  Any experience out there
>with Stat/Transfer or any other application to directly transfer large
>data files from SAS to SPSS and vice versa? (I'm using SPSS 14.0 and my
>colleagues use SAS 8.x).

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[Barnett, Adrian (HEALTH)]

Hi Tanya
I have DBMS/COPY V8 and it works fine, although it does not support long
file names directly in SPSS. It truncates them to 8 chars when it reads
them in, and if you rename them to something longer, it will truncate
them again if the format you save to is SPSS. It handles SAS up to V9
(the company is owned by SAS so I imagine SAS support is pretty good,
although I've not tried to read or write SAS files in this version.)

I've had some problems trying to convert some SPSS files to Access, in
which the program terminated abnormally, but I believe that was caused
by the underlying Windows ODBC engine which DBMS/COPY was using, as
another program did exactly the same thing on the same file. Mostly SPSS
to Access has been fine though.

The list of file formats it handles is very extensive. The long filename
thing is a nuisance but not a showstopper. You will probably find more
and better information about its capabilities by Googling its name, as
the website (www.dataflux.com) seems to have been designed by
marketing/PR wonks not keen to let too many actual facts slip through,
or even to let you find where on earth the section on DBMS/COPY is - it
took me ages to find it. It's here:
http://www.dataflux.com/Technology/Products/DBMS/

I haven't tried Stat/Transfer but some colleagues use it with SPSS and
SAS and seem quite happy with that.

One cheaper alternative to both of these products might be to ask the
SAS programmers to use another format like CSV with variable names in
the top row. Even if they don't use that format, there must be plenty of
others they could choose which would avoid having to chop the file into
bits like this (which would probably simplify their lives as well)

Regards


Adrian

--
Adrian Barnett
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]]
> On Behalf Of Tanya Temkin
> Sent: Wednesday, 1 November 2006 10:03
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: SAS to SPSS transfers
>
> I regularly work in SPSS with large files created by
> programmers in SAS, which are then split into several Excel
> files (since total # of records exceeds the # of records a
> single Excel file can hold) and forwarded to me.  I then open
> and save the Excel files as separate SPSS files before
> merging these into a big SPSS file. This is cumbersome and
> time-consuming and I'm looking for tools to streamline the process.
>
> A SAS-using friend recommended Stat/Transfer.  Any experience
> out there with Stat/Transfer or any other application to
> directly transfer large data files from SAS to SPSS and vice
> versa? (I'm using SPSS 14.0 and my colleagues use SAS 8.x).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tanya Temkin
>
> Research Associate
> AACC Reporting
> Northern California Regional Office
> The Permanente Medical Group
>
>
> NOTICE TO RECIPIENT:  If you are not the intended recipient
> of this e-mail, you are prohibited from sharing, copying, or
> otherwise using or disclosing its contents.  If you have
> received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender
> immediately by reply e-mail and permanently delete this
> e-mail and any attachments without reading, forwarding or
> saving them.  Thank you.
>