Importing Panel data from Excel

[taffy]

hey guys
i am trying to import my panel data from excel and i have followed the steps once posted. when i want now to unstack my data, its keeps on telling me that,"series specified for unstacking doesnt have"values for forming a series name.

my second question is that, how can i incorporate dummy variables in importing data to eviews.
i use eviews 7.2
attached below is my data on excell sheet
Thanks in advance
taffy

[EViews Gareth]

First thing I'd do is change the names of the states and variables into something EViews will accept as series names. No spaces, not longer than 8 characters, etc...

[taffy]

thanx Gareth,,,,,,so do i need to change my excel variabes and then start the whole process of importing my panel data to EViews.

[EViews Gareth]

I suspect you are more comfortable in Excel than in EViews, so that would be my recommendation, yes

[ndaskal]

Hi Gareth,
I have created a database of panel data in Excel, which comprises of 9556 firms, 11 variables and 4 years
The structure of the data is as follows

Asset Strucutre Size-TURNOVER SIZE-Total Assets .....
firm1 0.111424889 14.77962108 14.65146157 2005
firm2 0.113852996 17.61287749 17.23648397
firm3 0.848049006 13.32992211 14.13611761
.
.
firm1 0.111424889 14.77962108 14.65146157 2006
firm2 0.113852996 17.61287749 17.23648397
firm3 0.848049006 13.32992211 14.13611761
.
.

I also upload a sample of the file (due to upload maximum size restrictions)

How can I import this dataset in EViews 8?

Thanks in advance for your time.

[EViews Gareth]

I don't see anything in the file that indicates year?

[ndaskal]

My fault. Would this help?

[startz]

I dragged your Excel file onto EViews and it opened as a panel workfile just fine.

[ndaskal]

OK, then I must do something wrong... The steps I follow are the following:

1. I open Eviews, I click the Create a new EViews workfile
2. I choose Balanced Panel and set Start date: 2005, End date: 2008, Number of cross sections: 9556 (then I click OK)
3. An untitled Workfile is created. I then go to Proc => Import => Import from File => I choose the file
4. I click Next in "Excel Read - Step 1 of 3"
5. I click Next in "Excel Read - Step 2 of 3"

And then in the 3 of 3 Step, I get the following table:
YEAR FIRM AS ... ... ...
? 2005 firm 1 0.11
? 2005 firm 2 0.11
? 2005 firm 3 0.84
? 2005 firm 4 0.18
? 2005 firm 5 0.17
? 2005 firm 6 0.05
? 2005 firm 7 0.03
? 2005 firm 8 0.46
? 2005 firm 9 0.37

...
...
...

So, I cannot click Finish, because I have to define what EViews reads. My only choice that brings something back, is if I choose Sequential Read in "Import method", when I get the following:

YEAR FIRM AS ... ... ...
1-05 2005 firm 1 0.11
1-06 2005 firm 2 0.11
1-07 2005 firm 3 0.84
1-08 2005 firm 4 0.18
2-05 2005 firm 5 0.17
2-06 2005 firm 6 0.05
2-07 2005 firm 7 0.03
2-08 2005 firm 8 0.46
3-05 2005 firm 9 0.37


Please note however that this is NOT what I want. The difference is that in my Excel file, in each consecutive row I have all firms FOR THE SAME YEAR, whereas EViews reads it as all consecutive years FOR THE SAME FIRM.

To illustrate more: In my Excel File, I have the Asset Structure (AS) for Firm 1, Firm 2, Firm 3 and so on in cells c2, c3, c4 and so on, however the EVIEWS recognizes cells c2, c3, c4, as the Asset Structure of Firm 1, for 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively...

Most probably I do something wrong, so I would appreciate it if you could help me on this...

Thanks again for your time,
Nikos

[EViews Gareth]

Just click on File->Open->Foreign Data, then select the Excel file and click Finish.

[ndaskal]

ok thanks. I will now have to find out how to handle this format... Anyway, thanks for your time.