Error when importing *.dta data

For questions regarding the import, export and manipulation of data in EViews, including graphing and basic statistics.

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uuwipo
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Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 7:43 am

Error when importing *.dta data

Postby uuwipo » Tue Sep 22, 2020 2:34 am

I get the following error massage when importing data into my workfile.
"File 'D:\Data\xyz.dta' has been corrupted (seek failed)."
I am using an Academic Standalone EViews 11 License and the data file has the size of about 3.5 GB. It can be imported by other software such as stata on my computer.
What exactly does the error mean and how can i import such a data set?

EViews Steve
EViews Developer
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Location: Irvine, CA

Re: Error when importing *.dta data

Postby EViews Steve » Thu Sep 24, 2020 7:06 am

Do you know what version of Stata was used to generate the DTA file? It's possible that our support for DTA doesn't extend to particular versions. Also, your file is very close to the limit of a 32-bit application so make sure you are using EViews 64-bit to try and open the file.

Another suggestion would be to open the file in Stata, remove half of the data, and re-save it to a new file name to see if that works with EViews. If so, then you're probably hitting the maximum limit of DTA support within EViews. We'd need a copy of your 3.5GB DTA file in order to investigate.

Steve

uuwipo
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 7:43 am

Re: Error when importing *.dta data

Postby uuwipo » Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:34 am

Thanks for the help.
I'm using an EViews 64-bit version. I don't know the Stata version but other DTA-files, that are in the same data package are working just fine. It is just this one specific large data file. I already did remove lots of the unnecessary data but i would like to not have to use stata at all.
I cannot give you the data due to copyright restrictions.
Is there a data size restriction for the 64-bit version?

startz
Non-normality and collinearity are NOT problems!
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Re: Error when importing *.dta data

Postby startz » Fri Sep 25, 2020 6:10 am

As a work around, try opening the data in Stata and saving it using SaveAs in a different version of Stata.

EViews Gareth
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Re: Error when importing *.dta data

Postby EViews Gareth » Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:46 am

Or csv
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startz
Non-normality and collinearity are NOT problems!
Posts: 3775
Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2008 2:25 pm

Re: Error when importing *.dta data

Postby startz » Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:52 am

CSV will work, but if you can keep it in Stata then EViews will pick up value labels.

EViews Steve
EViews Developer
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Location: Irvine, CA

Re: Error when importing *.dta data

Postby EViews Steve » Fri Sep 25, 2020 10:14 am

My suggestions were only meant to troubleshoot and pinpoint the specific problem, not come up with a workaround.

My guess is that the problem is due to file size, so trying to open it after removing half the data could answer that. EViews 64-bit can theoretically read files that are much larger than 4GB but it was originally a 32-bit program so there might still be some limitations in our STATA read code (which hasn't been touched in a long time) that is limited to 32-bit pointers (which has a ~4GB limit).

Simply resaving the file in STATA might also work, but then that'll point to version differences.

If cutting the file down in half doesn't work, then there's probably an issue with a specific series and/or reading some meta data. And unless we can reproduce that particular issue here, there isn't much we can do without the DTA file.

uuwipo
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 7:43 am

Re: Error when importing *.dta data

Postby uuwipo » Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:26 am

Thanks for the help. I already opened, downsized, and saved the data file in stata. Using that approach the import of the then smaller *.dta file works just fine. The whole point is, that i and other colleagues don't want to have to use stata anymore for working with the data.


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