Text Fixed Import Options
Click the V7 Fixed Import button in the Import Fixed Text Files dialog box to display the Text Fixed Import Options dialog box.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Imported file | The name of the selected text file to import is displayed here. |
| File size | You can accurately specify the number of variables. |
| No. of vars | Specifies the number of variables in the ASCII (text) file that is being imported. |
| No. of cases | Specifies the number of cases in the ASCII (text) file that is being imported. If you are uncertain about the exact number of cases, you can overestimate. Statistica detects the actual length of the file during import. Note that each line in the ASCII source file can be up to 4,000 characters in length. This limit only applies to the individual line length and not the total length of a case of data: each imported case can be represented by many lines of data in the source file. |
| Import case names | Select this check box if you want case names to be obtained from the first field of each record in the ASCII file. If this variable contains more than 20 characters, only the first 20 are used as the case name. If the field contains numeric values instead of text, the case names are created as text images of these values. |
| Start import at row | Specifies the row of the text file to begin the import. |
| Format statement (to identify types of values) | Explicitly defines for Statistica the exact contents of the input ASCII file. (This is an important distinction: the format statement is a set of instructions for interpreting the structure of the input file, not a definition of the Statistica variables to be created.) The format statement is entered as a list of formats in the form nXm, where n is an integer multiplier indicating the number of times the format is to be repeated (no multiplier = 1); X is the column type; m is the column width (for instance, 10A8 means 10 text value [alphanumeric] fields, each 8 characters long). |
Column Type Specifiers:
- A Text (Alphanumeric)
- F Float (also R - Real, equivalent to Real 4B in the Column Specs dialog box)
- D Double Float (also DR - Double Real, equivalent to Real 8B in the Column Specs dialog box)
- I Integer (also NI - Normal Integer, equivalent to Int 2B in the Column Specs dialog box)
- S Short Integer (also SI, equivalent to Int 1B in the Column Specs dialog box)
- LI Long Integer (also J, equivalent to Int 4B in the Column Specs dialog box)
- L Logical
Values of TRUE or YES are imported as 1, FALSE or NO are imported as 0.
The additional specifier Tx is available to instruct Statistica to jump to character number x in the current line in the input file (for instance, to skip to that position). This may be used to jump over unwanted characters, or to return to an earlier character (if x specifies a character position which has already been read).
The slash character (/) might be used to indicate that the remainder of the line should be ignored (such as to skip to the next line in the input file).
Example: 10I3 A8 T55 3I5 / specifies the import of 14 values: ten 3-digit integers, followed by an 8-character text string, then skip to the 55th character in the record, import three 5-digit integers and ignore the rest of the record. If the multiplier precedes a list of formats enclosed in parentheses, the list is repeated as many times as specified in the multiplier (10(2A3,I5)).