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#StataDtaJS

StataDtaJS is a JavaScript library with a single purpose: read a Stata dataset file from disk and create a JavaScript object containing all of the file's information.

StataDta.js works with dta versions 114, 115, and 117 (the main versions used with Stata 11, 12, and 13), and, in particular, can read strL data in version 117.

StataDta.js uses JavaScript's DataView to read the dataset, and so can be used with any modern browser that supports DataView. It's likely that this library will work with a "polyfill" like jDataView, but this has not been verified.

##Usage

Use the function StataDta.open to open a dta file. The function takes two arguments and returns an object. The first argument should be a DataView object, the second a boolean determining whether each row should be input as a JSON object or an array.

##Example

The included example.html is a simple example that reads a dta file into the global variable dta which can then be inspected from a browser console. Here is example input and output from the Chrome browser after loading the auto.dta file that comes with Stata13:

> dta
  Object {_dsFormat: 117, _littleEndian: true, _nvar: 12, _nobs: 74, _dataLabel: "1978 Automobile Data"…}
> dta._varlist
  ["make", "price", "mpg", "rep78", "headroom", "trunk", "weight", "length", "turn", "displacement", "gear_ratio", "foreign"]
> dta._varvals[0]
  Object {make: "AMC Concord", price: 4099, mpg: 22, rep78: 3, headroom: 2.5…}
> dta._vallabs
  Object {origin: Object}
> dta._vallabs['origin']
  Object {0: "Domestic", 1: "Foreign"}

##Side effects:

StataDta.js adds

• the function startsWith to the String prototype if it does not already exist
• the function getUTF8 to the DataView prototype
• the function getBlob to the DataView prototype

##Author James Fiedler

email: jrfiedler at gmail dot com