Importing data with the haven package

The following makes use of the haven package. You may need to install it from CRAN using the code install.packages("haven") if you want to run this on your computer. (The package is already installed on the notebook container, however.)

This notebook makes use of the following files:

Currently, these Data files are also available from https://www.pippanorris.com/data. (Previously they were available from http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/pnorris/Data/Data.htm.)

library(haven)

# Reading in an SPSS "system" file
ConstRes2010 <- read_sav("ConstituencyResults2010.sav")
head(ConstRes2010)

  refno cons lab  libdem snp  plcym green bnp ukip
1 1     14.3 51.9 16.3     NA  7.1  NA    4.1 1.6 
2 2     35.8 24.5 19.3     NA 17.8  NA     NA 2.1 
3 3     12.4 44.4 18.6   22.2   NA  NA    1.7  NA 
4 4     20.7 36.5 28.4   11.9   NA   1    1.2  NA 
5 5     30.3 13.6 38.4   15.7   NA  NA    1.1 0.9 
6 6      8.7 58.2  8.1   23.6   NA  NA     NA  NA 

# Reading in an SPSS "portable" file 
ConstRes2010 <- read_por("ConstituencyResults2010.por") # This works with 'foreign', but not with 'haven'
head(ConstRes2010)

Read bytes: 0   String: ⁸/  Ending state: 0
Error parsing double string (length=4): ⁸/ [8/]

Error in df_parse_por_file(spec, encoding = "", user_na = user_na, cols_skip, : Failed to parse ConstituencyResults2010.por: Invalid file, or file has unsupported features.
Traceback:

1. read_por("ConstituencyResults2010.por")
2. df_parse_por_file(spec, encoding = "", user_na = user_na, cols_skip, 
 .     n_max, skip, name_repair = .name_repair)

# Reading in a Stata file
ConstRes2010 <- read_dta("ConstituencyResults2010.dta")
head(ConstRes2010)

  refno cons lab  libdem snp  plcym green bnp ukip
1 1     14.3 51.9 16.3     NA  7.1  NA    4.1 1.6 
2 2     35.8 24.5 19.3     NA 17.8  NA     NA 2.1 
3 3     12.4 44.4 18.6   22.2   NA  NA    1.7  NA 
4 4     20.7 36.5 28.4   11.9   NA   1    1.2  NA 
5 5     30.3 13.6 38.4   15.7   NA  NA    1.1 0.9 
6 6      8.7 58.2  8.1   23.6   NA  NA     NA  NA 

# Reading in a new format Stata file
ConstRes2010 <- read_dta("ConstResults2010-stata-new.dta")
head(ConstRes2010)

  refno cons lab  libdem snp  plcym green bnp ukip
1 1     14.3 51.9 16.3     NA  7.1  NA    4.1 1.6 
2 2     35.8 24.5 19.3     NA 17.8  NA     NA 2.1 
3 3     12.4 44.4 18.6   22.2   NA  NA    1.7  NA 
4 4     20.7 36.5 28.4   11.9   NA   1    1.2  NA 
5 5     30.3 13.6 38.4   15.7   NA  NA    1.1 0.9 
6 6      8.7 58.2  8.1   23.6   NA  NA     NA  NA