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Import SAS data with haven

haven is an extremely easy-to-use package to import data from three software packages: SAS, STATA and SPSS. Depending on the software, you use different functions:

  • SAS: read_sas()
  • STATA: read_dta() (or read_stata(), which are identical)
  • SPSS: read_sav() or read_por(), depending on the file type.

All these functions take one key argument: the path to your local file. In fact, you can even pass a URL; haven will then automatically download the file for you before importing it.

You'll be working with data on the age, gender, income, and purchase level (0 = low, 1 = high) of 36 individuals (Source: SAS). The information is stored in a SAS file, sales.sas7bdat, which is available in your current working directory. You can also download the data here.

This is a part of the course

“Intermediate Importing Data in R”

View Course

Exercise instructions

  • Load the haven package; it's already installed on DataCamp's servers.
  • Import the data file "sales.sas7bdat". Call the imported data frame sales.
  • Display the structure of sales with str(). Some columns represent categorical variables, so they should be factors.

Hands-on interactive exercise

Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.

# Load the haven package


# Import sales.sas7bdat: sales


# Display the structure of sales
Edit and Run Code

This exercise is part of the course

Intermediate Importing Data in R

IntermediateSkill Level
4.8+
11 reviews

Parse data in any format. Whether it's flat files, statistical software, databases, or data right from the web.

Next to R, there are also other commonly used statistical software packages: SAS, STATA and SPSS. Each of them has their own file format. Learn how to use the haven and foreign packages to get them into R with remarkable ease!

Exercise 1: havenExercise 2: Import SAS data with haven
Exercise 3: Import STATA data with havenExercise 4: What does the graphic tell?Exercise 5: Import SPSS data with havenExercise 6: Factorize, round twoExercise 7: foreignExercise 8: Import STATA data with foreign (1)Exercise 9: Import STATA data with foreign (2)Exercise 10: Do you know your data?Exercise 11: Import SPSS data with foreign (1)Exercise 12: Excursion: CorrelationExercise 13: Import SPSS data with foreign (2)

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