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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: https://assets.datacamp.com/production/course_1478/datasets/trade.dta

This exercise is part of the course

Intermediate Importing Data in R

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Exercise instructions

  • 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?

Hands-on interactive exercise

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

# haven is already loaded

# Import the data from the URL: sugar


# Structure of sugar


# Convert values in Date column to dates


# Structure of sugar again
Edit and Run Code