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In analyzing some data from a somewhat old academic paper, I received some data files that were produced by an even older piece of software, namely the 20+ year old SAS version 6 (.ssd01 extension).

How would you convert this file to a modern format for analysis with R, Python, etc? Bonus (bounty) points if the process doesn't require getting a SAS license or other commercial software.

Hints:

Here are the files, in case anyone wants to get their hands dirty (no, they are not viruses, just the data from the above paper):

swallco.ssd01, swallpd.ssd01

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Andrew Mao
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  • Hmm. These are binary data files, which makes it harder to infer the structure, although my guess is that the structure is relatively simple, so that if you could find a spec for SAS 6 files, it would be only "a small matter of programming" (in C, I would guess) to parse them and print the data as a csv file or something like that. You might want to find a SAS users forum to ask about the SAS 6 file format. Good luck and have fun. – Robert Dodier Apr 11 '17 at 16:50
  • SAS University Edition can be downloaded and used if this is for academic purposes, which it seems to be. – Reeza Apr 12 '17 at 04:21
  • Hey @AndrewMao, what did you end up doing? I'm dealing with the same issue... (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/70594988/how-to-convert-sass-ssd-to-csv) – Skaqqs Jan 05 '22 at 21:13

1 Answers1

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I just grabbed a demo version of the Windows 64-bit version of the software from https://www.stattransfer.com and applied it to your first file, asking for csv output. Here are the first few lines of the result.

"TIME","PLAYERID","PLAY","PAY","N1","N1PLAY","N1PAY","N2","N2PLAY","N2PAY","N3","N3PLAY","N3PAY","N4","N4PLAY","N4PAY","NN","N5","N5PLAY","N5PAY","N6","N6PLAY","N6PAY","N7","N7PLAY","N7PAY","ACTION","N1ACT","N2ACT","N3ACT","N4ACT","N5ACT","N6ACT","N7ACT","NETWORK","GAME","SESSION","LAGACTON","N1ACTO","N2ACTO","N3ACTO","N4ACTO","N5ACTO","N6ACTO","N7ACTO","ACTS","LAGACTS","PROPORT","LAGPROP","GRAPH","CLUSTER","LENGHT"
    2,0,"B",3.2,1,"A",2,2,"A",2,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,1,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",,1,1,0,1,0,0,0,3,,0.75,,"local",0.5,2.647
    3,0,"A",0.5,1,"B",2.5,2,"B",2.5,17,"B",2.5,16,"A",0.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,1,0,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,3,0.25,0.75,"local",0.5,2.647
    4,0,"B",2.5,1,"A",-1,2,"B",1.8,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",0.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",1,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,2,1,0.5,0.25,"local",0.5,2.647
    5,0,"B",2.5,1,"B",2.5,2,"A",-1,17,"A",0.5,16,"B",3.2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,0,1,1,0,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,2,2,0.5,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    6,0,"A",2,1,"B",2.5,2,"A",2,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",3.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,1,0,1,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,2,2,0.5,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    7,0,"B",1.8,1,"B",1.8,2,"B",2.5,17,"B",2.5,16,"A",2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,0,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,2,0.25,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    8,0,"A",2,1,"B",2.5,2,"B",2.5,17,"A",3.5,16,"A",3.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,1,0,0,1,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,2,1,0.5,0.25,"local",0.5,2.647
    9,0,"B",2.5,1,"B",1.8,2,"B",1.8,17,"A",2,16,"A",3.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,0,0,1,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",1,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,2,2,0.5,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    10,0,"B",1.8,1,"B",1,2,"B",1.8,17,"B",2.5,16,"A",2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,0,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,2,0.25,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    11,0,"B",3.2,1,"A",0.5,2,"B",1.8,17,"A",3.5,16,"A",3.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,0,1,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,1,0,1,1,0,0,0,3,1,0.75,0.25,"local",0.5,2.647
    12,0,"B",2.5,1,"A",0.5,2,"B",2.5,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,2,3,0.5,0.75,"local",0.5,2.647
    13,0,"B",2.5,1,"A",0.5,2,"B",3.2,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",0.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,2,2,0.5,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    14,0,"B",3.2,1,"A",2,2,"A",3.5,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,1,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,1,1,0,1,0,0,0,3,2,0.75,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647

I have no idea how good this is! :) No, I'm not associated with any companies that make or market this. And, no, I've never even tried it out before. You now know everything about it (almost) that I do.

Best of luck.

Bill Bell
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  • Wow, the wonders of crowdsourcing. Seems like just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately the demo seems to have a bit of a drawback: **You will get a complete, functioning copy, except that one out of about every sixteen cases will not be transferred.** – Andrew Mao Apr 11 '17 at 17:37
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    Well it *is* a demo. – Bill Bell Apr 11 '17 at 18:08