On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 10:35:40PM -0500, Ken Singh wrote:
Hello,
It is unclear to me how to quickly and efficiently combine a set of comma
separated files into one data file. The easy solution would be to use the
unix 'cat' command to concatenate the files then import using the graphical
interface. However, I'm interested in a purely PSPP based solution.
I have tried GET DATA in combination with SAVE but it appears that the
dataset must be made active. I am not certain about this step.
GET DATA
/TYPE=TXT /ARRANGEMENT=DELIMITED
/FILE='e:\Dropbox\data\raw1.txt'
/DELIMITERS=','
SAVE
/OUTFILE = 'e:\dropbox\data\tmp.sav'
Here is one way you could solve that problem, assuming that both your
CSV files have the same arrangement:
dataset declare d_one.
dataset activate d_one.
GET DATA /TYPE=TXT /FILE='one.csv' /VARIABLES=x F8.2 y F8.2 z F8.2.
dataset declare d_two.
dataset activate d_two.
GET DATA /TYPE=TXT /FILE='two.csv' /VARIABLES=x F8.2 y F8.2 z F8.2.
dataset declare d_concat.
dataset activate d_concat.
ADD FILES /FILE=d_one /FILE=d_two.
LIST.
It also appears that the VARIABLES subcommand is required. Is there a
solution for when one has dozens of variables?
The problem with CSV is that there is no metadata. How should pspp (or anyone
else!)
know if a column is to be interpreted as a string, a date, or whatever? If you
happen to know that all your files have the same arrangement, then one solution
you
could try, is to use psppire's import function to "guess" the arrangement of
each file
(hopefully it should guess each one identically) and save to a .sav - then you
can use
ADD FILES to concatonate all the files at once.
The bigger problem is that I have many raw#.txt files, not necessarily
contiguously numbered. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
Again, if the order that the .txt files should be read cannot be determined from
the names, then you must tell it. At the end of the day, pspp is a statistical
analysis tool, not an artificial intelligence engine (although the format
guesser does
attempt to go a small way in that direction).
Hope this is helpful.
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