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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”

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

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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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