Import STATA data with haven

Next up are STATA data files; you can use read_dta() for these.

When inspecting the result of the read_dta() call, you will notice that one column will be imported as a labelled vector, an R equivalent for the common data structure in other statistical environments. In order to effectively continue working on the data in R, it's best to change this data into a standard R class. To convert a variable of the class labelled to a factor, you'll need haven's as_factor() function.

In this exercise, you will work with data on yearly import and export numbers of sugar, both in USD and in weight. The data can be found at: http://assets.datacamp.com/course/importing_data_into_r/trade.dta

Import the data file directly from the URL using read_dta(), and store it as sugar.
Print out the structure of sugar. The Date column has class labelled.
Convert the values in the Date column of sugar to dates, using as.Date(as_factor(___)).
Print out the structure of sugar once more. Looks better now?

Exercise

Import STATA data with haven

Instructions