Supported import and export data files
See Also
In addition to GenStat's own spreadsheet data formats, GenStat supports a wide range of external data file formats for import and export. The following table provides a list of the data formats that GenStat supports.

File typeDescription
GWB GenStat Book files
GSH GenStat Spreadsheet files
XLS Microsoft Excel files, in BIFF2-8 format (includes Excel 95 and 97, 2000 and XP)
XLSX Microsoft Excel 2007 files
XLSM Microsoft Excel 2007 macro enabled files
WK1 Lotus work files
WQ1 Quattro work files
WB1 Quattro work files
WB2 Quattro work files
WB3 Quattro work files
QPW Corel Quattro work files
DBF dBase files
DB Paradox version 3,4,5 files (import only)
MTW Minitab work files (import only)
MTP Minitab Portable files (import only)
MST MSTAT data files (import only)
MAT Matlab matrix files
FMT Gauss matrix files
DHT Gauss v89 data set files (import only)
DAT Gauss v96 data set files (PC and Unix) (import only)
DTA Stata data sets (import only)
POR SPSS Portable ASCII data sets (import only)
REC Epi-Info Data files (import only)
SSD SAS DOS data sets version 6.03-6.04 (import only)
SSD0? SAS UNIX data sets version 6.03-6.12 (import only)
SD2 SAS Windows data sets version 6.07-6.12 (import only)
SAS7BDAT SAS Windows data sets version 7-9 (import only)
JMP SAS JMP data sets for PC or Mac (import only)
TPT SAS Transport data sets
SAV SPSS Windows data sets (import only)
SYS Systat data sets (import only)
JNB SigmaPlot 7-9 Notebooks (import only)
. S+ data frames and matrices (PC and Unix)
SDD S+ text transport files
RDA R Data frames
STA Statistica version 5 and 6 worksheet files
WOR INSTAT worksheet files (import only)
BMP Windows Bit mapped graphics files
WAV Windows Wave sound files
SHP ArcGIS shape files
MIF MapInfo Transport text files
ARFF Weka files
VTB Visualist files
CSV Comma delimited text files
DAT Plain text files
TAB Tab delimited files
CSV Comma delimited files
DCT OSIRIS survey data files
GEN GenStat Command Files (export only)

Note that if the format you are looking for does not appear in the above list, please let us know at support@genstat.com.

Additional information

SAS v7-9 Value Labels

GenStat supports the import of SAS value labels for SAS v7-9 files. SAS, unlike other systems, stores value labels as custom formats, in a separate catalogue file. The format of this catalogue file is undocumented, therefore, GenStat goes through the "front door" and rather than reading directly from the catalogue file, reads value labels from a new file that you create using SAS itself. This file contains the same information as the catalogue file, but is in a more convenient format for GenStat to read. You will be prompted for this format file when opening a SAS file. Answer Yes to the query 'Do you want to specify a PROC FORMAT file for the dataset?' if you have created this file for the value labels. If you respond with Yes, it will then prompt for a file containing the value labels created with the PROC FORMAT statement (as below). By default, GenStat will look for a file called sas_fmts.sas7bat in the same directory as the import file. The selected file will be used to transfer your variable labels.

To create a file to include the PROC FORMAT statement for GenStat to import the SAS value labels, you will need run the following small program in SAS:

libname mylib '<path to SAS file>'; 
proc format library = mylib cntlout = mylib.sas_fmts; 
run;

where '<path to SAS file>' is the directory that contains your import data file.

This procedure creates a SAS file in the directory '<path to SAS file>' that has the format information for each SAS data file. In this case, the file will have the name sas_fmts.sas7bdat and it will be found in the same directory as the import file.

SAS catalogue files not only support conventional value labels (the one-to-one mapping of a string to a single number), but also the mapping of a range of numeric values to a single string (for example, zip code mapped to state). However, GenStat will only import conventional one-to-one value labels from SAS.

SigmaPlot 8/9

SigmaPlot 8/9 files may contain several notebooks. When importing to GenStat you are prompted to select the required notebook. However, the notebooks are numbered by the order of occurrence within the file, and this may not be the same order as that displayed within SigmaPlot.

INSTAT Worksheets

When opening INSTAT files you will be prompted with a dialog where you can specify additional options for how the data are to be imported.

SPSS

When an SPSS file is imported you will be prompted with a dialog where you can specify how GenStat will interpret the missing values in the SPSS files.

Matlab 5

When opening Matlab 5 files you will be prompted with a dialog where you can select the data structure that you want to be imported from the file.

Comma Delimited (CSV) files

When opening CSV files you will be prompted with a dialog where you can specify additional options for how the data are to be imported.

All Formats

When data are imported, if the columns appear to contain grouped values you will be prompted with a dialog where these columns can be converted to factors.

See Also