csdb problems

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mmhill
Posts: 18
Joined: August 5th, 2014, 3:26 pm

csdb problems

Post by mmhill »

Investigating a possible formatting issue in data exported to SAS. In order to learn more about it wanted to look at the actual records by viewing them in CSPro. Unfortunately, when trying to open the data entry file, get this error message:
error_msg_1.docx
(44.02 KiB) Downloaded 130 times
#1: With the original data dictionary that accompanied this program in place, opened the program using 7.4; when tried opening the csdb file unsurprisingly saw this:
error_msg_2.docx
(504.11 KiB) Downloaded 122 times
Do these mean dictionary problems or something worse? The csdb file was originally created in a v7.1 data entry program. Any other method of viewing contents of a csdb?

Thank you.
-MJ Hill
sherrell
Posts: 397
Joined: April 2nd, 2014, 9:16 pm
Location: Washington, DC

Re: csdb problems

Post by sherrell »

Hi MJ,

"Unfortunately, when trying to open the data entry file, get this error message:"

Since you only gave a screenshot of the error msg I don't know what CSPro module you were using to open the file. But based on the message it looks like an ASCII/text file was given a CSDB extension, even though the file is not a CSDB file. Can you open the file in an ASCII editor? (notepad, etc.) If so, then it's not a CSDB file. If you can't, then is it viewable in DataViewer? (I'm guessing it won't be tho, given the error msg). But if it's not viewable in either, than it sounds like your file is possibly corrupted.

"With the original data dictionary that accompanied this program in place, opened the program using 7.4; when tried opening the csdb file unsurprisingly saw this:"

All the error messages refer to improperly defined dictionary value sets. A blank value is being used in the "from" field of a dictionary's variable, which is not allowed. That is strictly within the dictionary, it has nothing to do with any dataset potentially generated from the dictionary/application.

If you can't find the source of the problem, feel free to post your (zipped) files here; or, if you prefer not to make them public, you can send them to us at the Census Bureau at this address: cspro@lists.census.gov

Sherrell
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