I can not readin dat file from IPUMs.

Hello

I can not read in dat file from IPUMs. It says not Stata format. I have never had this problem before. I installed stata 13 recently but still have 12 as well. I can not even read anymore old do files that readin data in both Stata versions. It worked perferctly before.

Any help will be highly appreciated.

Thank you

I’m sorry you’ve been having trouble reading-in your IPUMS data. Here are a couple questions that may help troubleshoot the key issue: (1) What is the size of the file you are trying to read-in? Often times very large files take a very long time to read-into statistical software. If your file is large we typically recommend breaking up your data extract into smaller, more manageable chunks. (2) What software are you using to unzip the compressed .dat file? We recommend 7-zip, if your computer happens to default to something else.

I hope this helps. Let us know, via ipums@umn.edu, if you continue to have trouble.