Some (usually older) data sets are only available in fixed-widthASCII files (.txt or .dat) that have an .sps (SPSS) or .sas (SAS) setupfile explaining to the software how to read that file. These filecombinations are sometimes referred to as .txt+.sps, .txt+.sas,.dat+.sps, .dat+.sas. This package allows you to read in the data if youhave both the fixed-width file and its accompanying setup file.
To install this package, use the codeinstall.packages("asciiSetupReader")# The development version is available on Github.# install.packages("devtools")devtools::install_github("jacobkap/asciiSetupReader")The parametersdata andsetup_file are theonly ones requires to run the package though three optional parametersallow you to customize results.
data - A string containing the name of the data file
setup_file - A string containing the name of the setupfile
Both files must be in your working directory or the string mustcontain the path to the file. Below is an example of reading in theexample dataset - the original data and setup files can be foundhere.
Please note that I am only usingsystem.file() here sothe vignette builds in the package even not on my own computer. You willnot use this in the function. Instead you’d simply inputdata = "example_data.zip" andsetup_file = "example_setup.sps". The data file does nothave to be in a zip folder, it is only in a zip folder here to reducethe size of this package. In most cases it will be a .dat or a .txtfile.
data<-system.file("extdata","example_data.zip",package ="asciiSetupReader")setup_file<-system.file("extdata","example_setup.sps",package ="asciiSetupReader")example<- asciiSetupReader::read_ascii_setup(data = data,setup_file = setup_file)example[1:6,1:4]# Look at first 6 rows and first 4 columns#> IDENTIFIER_CODE NUMERIC_STATE_CODE ORI_CODE GROUP#> 1 SHR master file Alabama AL00112 Cit 50,000-99,999#> 2 SHR master file Alabama AL00112 Cit 50,000-99,999#> 3 SHR master file Alabama AL00112 Cit 50,000-99,999#> 4 SHR master file Arizona AZ00189 Cit < 2,500#> 5 SHR master file Arizona AZ00189 Cit < 2,500#> 6 SHR master file Arizona AZ00189 Cit < 2,500