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I would like to ask for your help concerning the following issue of mine. Foremost I would be glad if you could provide me with a hint, how to tackle the following problem, especially, which kind of software I could use. I do not want to inflate the topics, but I am struggling to come to a beginning which software I should consider and I do not have anyone I could ask nearby.

The scenario is the following: I have a folder with "SEC EDGAR filings", i.e., .txt-documents enumerated from 1 to n. What I want to do is

  • open the file,
  • read information on some variables (e.g. company name, filing date, state of incorporation etc.) and
  • create a data set in table form out of this,

for each of the n filings - i.e., I would need to go through a loop from 1 to n.

The result would look like this: would-like-to-end-up-with-table, where "serial number" refers to the number of the .txt-file the information stems from.

So, reading this topic and this, "R" seems to be capable of dealing with this kind of issues. What I am asking for is if, according to your assessment, utilizing R could potentially - if I do not prove to be too stupid to "get into" R - lead me to the desired result?

I would be glad, if you could provide your point of view concerning the aforementioned problem.

Yours sincerely, Mario

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Sinistrum
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  • R can definitely get you there, the first results in google on how to learn what you want is [this book](https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=strings+parsing+in+R&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gfe_rd=cr&ei=Mqq2WJLkC7Sn8wfikYu4Cw). If you do not have any programming background, I'd also suggest to get a look at python, which -in my totally biased opinion- is easier to "get into" and can do the exact same thing – LoicM Mar 01 '17 at 11:04
  • Thank you for your reply. I am relieved to read that R "can definitely get [me] there" as I hope to be capable of using it for the "more common" quantitative analysis next to SAS and STATA. Thus, "getting into this" might yield the highest benefit. – Sinistrum Mar 01 '17 at 15:40

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