Improvements in the import of alpha series

[mamo]

Hi,

the following issues trouble me as a user of Eviews 7.2

1) Reading in data into alpa-series is cumbersome. The manual suggests "" To import data into alpha series, you must specify the names of your series, and should enter the tag "$" following the series name (e.g., "NAME $ INCOME CONSUMP")."
Suggestion: allow for autodection of the type of series to be imported so that alpha-series can also be imported by just specifying the number of series to be imported in the read command.

2) Eviews cannot import strings from excel into alpha series if strings are generated in excel by excel string-formulas.
Suggestion: allow for import of strings generated by excel string formulas into alpha series possible, in the same way as numbers from excel number-formulas can be read in.

Kind regards

[EViews Gareth]

Sounds like you're using the old READ form of opening Excel files, rather than OPEN or IMPORT. Both OPEN or IMPORT will auto detect strings, and should handle formulas from Excel.

[mamo]

Hi, thanks for your quick response answer

Well , using "wfopen" (it seems that open does apply onyl for text files or pgroammes) or "import" seems to create other kind difficulties

Both, wfopen and import do not seem to be fully "batch-job" ready. It seems that I always have to press the "finish"-button even if all the necessary specifications are provided in the calling command (for instance: "import test.xls range="sheet2!B2:E5" @freq a 2001", using the excel file attached), and I find this an annoying feature.

What's more, while I can use the old "read(t)"command to also read in data organised by series (rather than, as per default, organised by observation), e.g. "sheet3" in the attached excel file "test2".xls", it seems that nothing comparable can be done with wfopen or with import.

Or did I miss sth?

Kind regards

[EViews Gareth]

When running in batch mode neither IMPORT or WFOPEN require you to click the finish button. Indeed, they do not show the dialog in batch mode.

You are correct that in EViews 7 neither support the use of transposed data. However in EViews 8 they do.