R help - Jan 2008 - Importing data

Hi,
I'm trying to import categorical data from SPSS to R using the script:
xxx <-spss.get("xxx.por", use.value.labels=TRUE) but unfortunately
am getting an error message 'error reading portable-file dictionary'.

I have successfully imported data in the past. 

What could be the problem with this data?

Thanks

Simo







     
____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and 


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Simo Vundla wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm trying to import categorical data from SPSS to R using the script:
> xxx <-spss.get("xxx.por", use.value.labels=TRUE) but
unfortunately am getting an error message 'error reading portable-file
dictionary'.
> 
> I have successfully imported data in the past. 
> 
> What could be the problem with this data?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Simo
First of all, follow the posting guide.  Second, state which package you 
are using (in this case Hmisc).

spss.get in Hmisc uses read.spss in the foreign package.  See the 
documentation of read.spss for more details. You will find there:

'read.spss' reads a file stored by the SPSS 'save' and
'export'
  commands and returns a list.

read.spss does not claim to be able to read SPSS .por files.

Frank
-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University

Hi,

you might try to use the foreign-package, which contains the function  
read.spss. This works fine most of the time,

For a description of its usage, see the help-files or my own website:  
http://www.rensenieuwenhuis.nl/r-project/manual/basics/getting-data- 
into-r-2/

Remember, you'll need to install the foreign-package first.

Hope this helps,

Rense Nieuwenhuis
On Jan 6, 2008, at 12:46 , Simo Vundla wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm trying to import categorical data from SPSS to R using the script:
> xxx <-spss.get("xxx.por", use.value.labels=TRUE) but
unfortunately
> am getting an error message 'error reading portable-file
dictionary'.
>
> I have successfully imported data in the past.
>
> What could be the problem with this data?
>
> Thanks
>
> Simo
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>        
> ______________________________________________________________________ 
> ______________
> Be a better friend, newshound, and
>
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting- 
> guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

At 11:46 06/01/2008, Simo Vundla wrote:
>Hi,
>I'm trying to import categorical data from SPSS to R using the script:
>xxx <-spss.get("xxx.por", use.value.labels=TRUE) but
unfortunately
>am getting an error message 'error reading portable-file
dictionary'.
>
>I have successfully imported data in the past.
In my experience there is quite a high failure rate with files which 
people send me and which they claim to be in SPSS save format or SPSS 
portable format. If they have a reasonably recent version of SPSS 
then ask them to save it in Stata format which at least in my 
experience is a more robust process.

>What could be the problem with this data?
>
>Thanks
>
>Simo
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 
>____________________________________________________________________________________
>Be a better friend, newshound, and
>
>
>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
Michael Dewey
http://www.aghmed.fsnet.co.uk