Title stata.com
import excel — Import and export Excel files
Syntax Menu Description
Options for import excel Options for export excel Remarks and examples
Stored results References Also see
Syntax
Load an Excel file
import excel
using
filename
, import excel options
Load subset of variables from an Excel file
import excel extvarlist using filename
, import excel options
Describe contents of an Excel file
import excel
using
filename, describe
Save data in memory to an Excel file
export excel
using
filename
if
in
, export excel options
Save subset of variables in memory to an Excel file
export excel
varlist
using filename
if
in
, export excel options
import excel options Description
sheet("sheetname") Excel worksheet to load
cellrange(
start
:end
) Excel cell range to load
firstrow treat first row of Excel data as variable names
case(preserve | lower | upper) preserve the case (the default) or read variable names
as lowercase or uppercase when using firstrow
allstring import all Excel data as strings
clear replace data in memory
locale("locale") specify the locale used by the workbook
locale() does not appear in the dialog box.
1
2 import excel — Import and export Excel files
export excel options Description
Main
sheet("sheetname") save to Excel worksheet
cell(start) start (upper-left) cell in Excel to begin saving to
sheetmodify modify Excel worksheet
sheetreplace replace Excel worksheet
firstrow(variables | varlabels) save variable names or variable labels to first row
nolabel export values instead of value labels
replace overwrite Excel file
Advanced
datestring("datetime format") save dates as strings with a datetime format
missing("repval") save missing values as repval
locale("locale") specify the locale used by the workbook
locale() does not appear in the dialog box.
extvarlist specifies variable names of imported columns. An extvarlist is one or more of any of the
following:
varname
varname=columnname
Example: import excel make mpg weight price using auto.xlsx, clear imports columns
A, B, C, and D from the Excel file auto.xlsx.
Example: import excel make=A mpg=B price=D using auto.xlsx, clear imports columns
A, B, and D from the Excel file auto.xlsx. Column C and any columns after D are skipped.
Menu
import excel
File > Import > Excel spreadsheet (*.xls;*.xlsx)
export excel
File > Export > Data to Excel spreadsheet (*.xls;*.xlsx)
Description
import excel loads an Excel file, also known as a workbook, into Stata. import excel filename,
describe lists available sheets and ranges of an Excel file. export excel saves data in memory
to an Excel file. Excel 1997/2003 (.xls) files and Excel 2007/2010 (.xlsx) files can be imported,
exported, and described using import excel, export excel, and import excel, describe.
import excel and export excel are supported on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
import excel and export excel look at the file extension, .xls or .xlsx, to determine which
Excel format to read or write.
For performance, import excel imposes a size limit of 40 MB for Excel 2007/2010 (.xlsx)
files. Be warned that importing large .xlsx files can severely affect your machine’s performance.
import excel — Import and export Excel files 3
import excel auto first looks for auto.xls and then looks for auto.xlsx if auto.xls is not
found in the current directory.
The default file extension for export excel is .xls if a file extension is not specified.
Options for import excel
sheet("sheetname") imports the worksheet named sheetname in the workbook. The default is to
import the first worksheet.
cellrange(
start
:end
) specifies a range of cells within the worksheet to load. start and end
are specified using standard Excel cell notation, for example, A1, BC2000, and C23.
firstrow specifies that the first row of data in the Excel worksheet consists of variable names. This
option cannot be used with extvarlist. firstrow uses the first row of the cell range for variable
names if cellrange() is specified. import excel translates the names in the first row to valid
Stata variable names. The original names in the first row are stored unmodified as variable labels.
case(preserve | lower | upper) specifies the case of the variable names read when using the
firstrow option. The default is case(preserve), meaning to preserve the variable name case.
allstring forces import excel to import all Excel data as string data.
clear clears data in memory before loading data from the Excel workbook.
The following option is available with import excel but is not shown in the dialog box:
locale("locale") specifies the locale used by the workbook. You might need this option when
working with extended ASCII character sets.
Options for export excel
Main
sheet("sheetname") saves to the worksheet named sheetname. If there is no worksheet named
sheetname in the workbook, a new sheet named sheetname is created. If this option is not
specified, the first worksheet of the workbook is used.
cell(start) specifies the start (upper-left) cell in the Excel worksheet to begin saving to. By default,
export excel saves starting in the first row and first column of the worksheet.
sheetmodify exports data to the worksheet without changing the cells outside the exported range.
sheetmodify cannot be combined with sheetreplace or replace.
sheetreplace clears the worksheet before the data are exported to it. sheetreplace cannot be
combined with sheetmodify or replace.
firstrow(variables | varlabels) specifies that the variable names or the variable labels be saved
in the first row in the Excel worksheet. The variable name is used if there is no variable label for
a given variable.
nolabel exports the underlying numeric values instead of the value labels.
replace overwrites an existing Excel workbook. replace cannot be combined with sheetmodify
or sheetreplace.
4 import excel — Import and export Excel files
Advanced
datestring("datetime format") exports all datetime variables as strings formatted by date-
time format. See [D] datetime display formats.
missing("repval") exports missing values as repval. repval can be either string or numeric. Without
specifying this option, export excel exports the missing values as empty cells.
The following option is available with export excel but is not shown in the dialog box:
locale("locale") specifies the locale used by the workbook. You might need this option when
working with extended ASCII character sets.
Remarks and examples stata.com
To demonstrate the use of import excel and export excel, we will first load auto.dta and
export it as an Excel file named auto.xls:
. use http://www.stata-press.com/data/r13/auto
(1978 Automobile Data)
. export excel auto, firstrow(variables)
file auto.xls saved
Now we can import from the auto.xls file we just created, telling Stata to clear the current data
from memory and to treat the first row of the worksheet in the Excel file as variable names:
. import excel auto.xls, firstrow clear
. describe
Contains data
obs: 74
vars: 12
size: 3,922
storage display value
variable name type format label variable label
make str17 %17s make
price int %10.0g price
mpg byte %10.0g mpg
rep78 byte %10.0g rep78
headroom double %10.0g headroom
trunk byte %10.0g trunk
weight int %10.0g weight
length int %10.0g length
turn byte %10.0g turn
displacement int %10.0g displacement
gear_ratio double %10.0g gear_ratio
foreign str8 %9s foreign
Sorted by:
Note: dataset has changed since last saved
import excel — Import and export Excel files 5
We can also import a subrange of the cells in the Excel file:
. import excel auto.xls, cellrange(:D70) firstrow clear
. describe
Contains data
obs: 69
vars: 4
size: 1,449
storage display value
variable name type format label variable label
make str17 %17s make
price int %10.0g price
mpg byte %10.0g mpg
rep78 byte %10.0g rep78
Sorted by:
Note: dataset has changed since last saved
Both .xls and .xlsx files are supported by import excel and export excel. If a file extension
is not specified with export excel, .xls is assumed, because this format is more common and is
compatible with more applications that also can read from Excel files. To save the data in memory
as a .xlsx file, specify the extension:
. use http://www.stata-press.com/data/r13/auto, clear
(1978 Automobile Data)
. export excel auto.xlsx
file auto.xlsx saved
To export a subset of variables and overwrite the existing auto.xls Excel file, specify a variable
list and the replace option:
. export excel make mpg weight using auto, replace
file auto.xls saved
Technical note: Excel data size limits
For an Excel .xls-type workbook, the worksheet size limits are 65,536 rows by 256 columns.
The string size limit is 255 characters.
For an Excel .xlsx-type workbook, the worksheet size limits are 1,048,576 rows by 16,384
columns. The string size limit is 32,767 characters.
Technical note: Dates and times
Excel has two different date systems, the “1900 Date System” and the “1904 Date System”. Excel
stores a date and time as an integer representing the number of days since a start date plus a fraction
of a 24-hour day.
In the 1900 Date System, the start date is 00Jan1900; in the 1904 Date System, the start date is
01Jan1904. In the 1900 Date System, there is another artificial date, 29feb1900, besides 00Jan1900.
import excel translates 29feb1900 to 28feb1900 and 00Jan1900 to 31dec1899.
See Using dates and times from other software in [D] datetime for a discussion of the relationship
between Stata datetimes and Excel datetimes.
6 import excel — Import and export Excel files
Technical note: Mixed data types
Because Excel’s data type is cell based, import excel may encounter a column of cells with
mixed data types. In such a case, the following rules are used to determine the variable type in Stata
of the imported column.
• If the column contains at least one cell with nonnumerical text, the entire column is imported as
a string variable.
• If an all-numerical column contains at least one cell formatted as a date or time, the entire
column is imported as a Stata date or datetime variable. import excel imports the column as
a Stata date if all date cells in Excel are dates only; otherwise, a datetime is used.
Video example
Import Excel data into Stata
Stored results
import excel filename, describe stores the following in r():
Macros
r(N worksheet) number of worksheets in the Excel workbook
r(worksheet #) name of worksheet # in the Excel workbook
r(range #) available cell range for worksheet # in the Excel workbook
References
Crow, K. 2012. Using import excel with real world data. The Stata Blog: Not Elsewhere Classified.
http://blog.stata.com/2012/06/25/using-import-excel-with-real-world-data/.
Jeanty, P. W. 2013. Dealing with identifier variables in data management and analysis. Stata Journal 13: 699–718.
Also see
[D] datetime — Date and time values and variables
[D] export — Overview of exporting data from Stata
[D] import — Overview of importing data into Stata
