This might work: http://www.vedit.com/download/ebcdic-2.txt
Here is a package that claims to convert and has a free 30 day full use demo
http://www.datamystic.com/textpipe/comp3_packed.html
I also recall doing this in SAS but LONG ago.
Joe Doherty wrote:
> Paul's message brings back unfond memories of the hours I wasted until a
> friend with SAS opened the file and saved it in SPSS format.
>
> Two comments:
> The ICPSR file ends in 1996, which limits it utility. IMF sells a CD
> that has historical and current data.
>
> Also, the IMF CD stores the data in an MS-Access file, and includes a
> well-designed program to extract data (for the uninitiated). IMHO,
> unless a person's research budget is absolutely zero, it's a more
> efficient use of time to buy the CD than it is to massage the ICPSR data
> into shape.
>
> Joe Doherty
> UCLA
>
> Paul Johnson wrote:
>> Benjamin Freeman wrote:
>>> I am having some difficulty working with the IMF Government Finance
>>> Statistics Data from the ICPSR Study No. 8624. Specifically, I do not
>>> know
>>> exactly how to unpack the main data file. Has anyone written code to
>>> unpack
>>> this file? Or, does anyone know of an alternative source for this
>>> data that
>>> does not require unpacking?
>>>
>> You need to be more specific with your question. I don't have any
>> trouble with "unpacking".
>>
>> $ unzip 6279173.zip
>> Archive: 6279173.zip
>> extracting: 6279173/ICPSR_08624/08624-manifest.txt
>> extracting: 6279173/ICPSR_08624/08624-related_literature.txt
>> extracting: 6279173/ICPSR_08624/08624-descriptioncitation.pdf
>> inflating: 6279173/ICPSR_08624/DS0001/08624-0001-Codebook.pdf
>> inflating: 6279173/ICPSR_08624/DS0001/08624-0001-Data.txt
>> inflating: 6279173/ICPSR_08624/DS0002/08624-0002-Data.txt
>>
>> Now, concerning the file 6279173/ICPSR_08624/DS0001/08624-0001-Data.txt,
>> I do see trouble. It is a block of characters I don't recognize. It is
>> certainly not encoded in ASCII or Unicode. My colleagues here suspect
>> it might be encoded EBCDIC character set, but my first guess was that it
>> was edited by somebody in a program that was popular in 1998, say "Word
>> Perfect" or such, and that person who saved it forgot to save into plain
>> text format. I don't think it is EBCDIC, because:
>>
>> $ recode EBCDIC..MSDOS test.txt
>> recode: test.txt failed: Invalid input in step
>> `ANSI_X3.4-1968..ISO-8859-1'
>>
>> Ah, then back to read the codebook. I see this comment "The data are
>> stored in packed zoned decimal format. A supplemental COBOL processing
>> program is available for use with this dataset." The COBOL program
>> called Funpack is provided in the directory DS0002, and my guess is that
>> one needs a COBOL compiler to run this program. Here are the first few
>> lines, in case you need to be convinced.
>>
>> EBCDIC LINE
>> 000010 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
>> 000020 PROGRAM-ID. 'FUNPACK'.
>> 000030 AUTHOR. KATHLEEN NELICK.
>> 000040 INSTALLATION. IMF BUREAU OF STATISTICS.
>> 000050 DATE-WRITTEN. FEBRUARY 1972.
>> 000060 DATE-COMPILED.
>> 000070*REMARKS. REFORMAT PACKED IFS DF RECORD TO INTERNAL DF RECORD.
>>
>> I tracked down a couple of COBOL compilers, but could not make any
>> progress compiling that code.
>>
>> As I google about in the internet, I gather that several IMF datasets
>> are in this format and several people have asked what to do about them.
>> I don't have more time to spend on this, but if I were you the first
>> thing I would try is PROC DATASOURCE in SAS, which claims it can handle
>> IMF files.
>>
>> Good luck. I think if you are more clear about what goes wrong, you
>> are probably more likely to get useful answers. When you leave us to
>> track down what dataset you are using and then guess what might be going
>> wrong, you are asking an awful lot.
>>
>> --
>> Paul E. Johnson email: [log in to unmask]
>> Dept. of Political Science http://pj.freefaculty.org
>> 1541 Lilac Lane, Rm 504
>> University of Kansas Office: (785) 864-9086
>> Lawrence, Kansas 66044-3177 FAX: (785) 864-5700
>>
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