Message-ID: <805FE4F1-94AE-4C06-96D2-92B3451C2906@comcast.net>
Date: 2009-11-22T02:10:45Z
From: David Winsemius
Subject: how to read BRFSS file
In-Reply-To: <9C9D166F-3A82-4B82-99AD-A56803C81876@comcast.net>
On Nov 21, 2009, at 8:41 PM, David Winsemius wrote:
>
> On Nov 21, 2009, at 7:58 PM, chloe yoon wrote:
>
>> hello,
>> I am trying to do exploratory factor analysis with BRFSS dataset (
>> http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/technical_infodata/surveydata/2008.htm)
>> for a
>> couple of days, but I was not able to do that and got frustrated. Can
>
>> anybody help me with step by step guide? BRFSS dataset provides
>> ASCII or SAS
>> format.
>
> I am not sure I have the time to create a step by step guide for a
> dataset that is 47 MB long which I don't intend to use. I have
> experience with loading datasets from NCHS from NHANES. Which
> dataset do you intend to use? Perhaps if you posed more discrete
> questions, then people could chime in as you proceeded stap by step.
>
> The data layout for the ASCII data is described on:
> http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/technical_infodata/surveydata/2008/varLayout_table_08.htm
>
> So it looks like you will be using either read.sas or read.fwf? Have
> you tried either one? What experiences or preparation have you you
> to report?
Actually, that would be foreign:::read.xport, not read.sas.
After downloading andunzipping the sas xport file, the following
worked fairly painlessly. There would also be the option of using
Hmisc:::sasxport.get
library(foreign)
brfss <- read.xport("/Users/davidwinsemius/Downloads/CDBRFS08.XPT")
--
David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT