Sorting a Workfile—259

Sorting a Workfile

Basic data in workfiles are held in objects called series. If you click on Proc/Sort Series… in the workfile toolbar, you can sort all of the series in an unstructured workfile on the basis of the values of one or more of the series. A dialog box will open where you can provide the details about the sort.

If you list two or more series, EViews uses the values of the second series to resolve ties in the first series, and values of the third series to resolve ties in the first and second, and so forth. If you wish to sort in descending order, select the appropriate option in the dialog.

EViews will only sort unstructured workfiles since sorting a dated or structured workfile will break the

link between an observation and the corresponding date identifier.

If you attempt to sort a dated or structured workfile, EViews will display a warning informing you that it will first unstructure your data, and then sort the data. Click on OK to continue with the operation.

Exporting from a Workfile

MicroTSP Files

You can read or write your workfile in a format that is compatible with MicroTSP. The Files of type and Save as type combo boxes in the Open and SaveAs dialogs allow you to handle DOS and Macintosh MicroTSP files. Simply click on the combo box and select either Old Dos Workfile or Old Mac Workfile, as appropriate. You should be aware, however, that if you choose to save a workfile in MicroTSP format, only basic series data will be saved—the remainder of the workfile contents will be discarded.

Foreign Formats

To save your series (and possibly value map data) into a foreign data source, first select File/Save As..., from the workfile menu to bring up the standard file Save dialog. Clicking on the Files of type combo box brings up a list of the output file types that EViews currently supports.

The data export interface is available for Microsoft Access, Aremos TSD, Gauss Dataset, GiveWin/Pc-Give, Rats 4.x, Rats Portable, SAS program files, SAS Transport, native SPSS (using the SPSS Input/output .DLL installed on your system), SPSS Portable, Stata, TSP