Read SPSS file into R

Question

I am trying to learn R and want to bring in an SPSS file, which I can open in SPSS.

I have tried using read.spss from foreign and spss.get from Hmisc. Both error messages are the same.

Here is my code:

## install.packages("Hmisc")
library(foreign)

## change the working directory
getwd()
setwd('C:/Documents and Settings/BTIBERT/Desktop/')

## load in the file
## ?read.spss
asq <- read.spss('ASQ2010.sav', to.data.frame=T)

And the resulting error:

Error in read.spss("ASQ2010.sav", to.data.frame = T) : error reading system-file header In addition: Warning message: In read.spss("ASQ2010.sav", to.data.frame = T) : ASQ2010.sav: position 0: character `\000' (

Also, I tried saving out the SPSS file as a SPSS 7 .sav file (was previously using SPSS 18).

Warning messages: 1: In read.spss("ASQ2010_test.sav", to.data.frame = T) : ASQ2010_test.sav: Unrecognized record type 7, subtype 14 encountered in system file 2: In read.spss("ASQ2010_test.sav", to.data.frame = T) : ASQ2010_test.sav: Unrecognized record type 7, subtype 18 encountered in system file

Answer 1

1)

I've found the program, stat-transfer, useful for importing spss and stata files into R.

It resolves the issue you mention by converting spss to R dataset. Also very useful for subsetting super large datasets into smaller portions consumable by R. Not free, but a very useful tool for working with datasets from different programs -- especially if you don't have access to them.

2)

Memisc package also has an spss function worth trying.

Answer 2

The read.spss seems to be outdated a little bit, so I used package called memisc.

To get this to work do this:

install.packages("memisc")
data <- as.data.set(spss.system.file('yourfile.sav'))