Read a .ssd01 data file from (ancient) SAS Version 6 (for Python/R)

Question

In analyzing some data from a somewhat old academic paper, I received some data files that were produced by an even older piece of software, namely the 20+ year old SAS version 6 (.ssd01 extension).

How would you convert this file to a modern format for analysis with R, Python, etc? Bonus (bounty) points if the process doesn't require getting a SAS license or other commercial software.

Hints:

Reading SAS® data sets with a filename extension such as .ssd01 or .ssd
pandas has a read_sas method, but only works on SAS version 7 data and newer (*.sas7bdat)
R has a similar import function for .sas7bdat but this also won't work for this version: Read SAS sas7bdat data into R

Here are the files, in case anyone wants to get their hands dirty (no, they are not viruses, just the data from the above paper):

swallco.ssd01, swallpd.ssd01

Hmm. These are binary data files, which makes it harder to infer the structure, although my guess is that the structure is relatively simple, so that if you could find a spec for SAS 6 files, it would be only "a small matter of programming" (in C, I would guess) to parse them and print the data as a csv file or something like that. You might want to find a SAS users forum to ask about the SAS 6 file format. Good luck and have fun. — Robert Dodier
SAS University Edition can be downloaded and used if this is for academic purposes, which it seems to be. — Reeza

Bill Bell Bill Bell · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-11T17:14:51

I just grabbed a demo version of the Windows 64-bit version of the software from https://www.stattransfer.com and applied it to your first file, asking for csv output. Here are the first few lines of the result.

"TIME","PLAYERID","PLAY","PAY","N1","N1PLAY","N1PAY","N2","N2PLAY","N2PAY","N3","N3PLAY","N3PAY","N4","N4PLAY","N4PAY","NN","N5","N5PLAY","N5PAY","N6","N6PLAY","N6PAY","N7","N7PLAY","N7PAY","ACTION","N1ACT","N2ACT","N3ACT","N4ACT","N5ACT","N6ACT","N7ACT","NETWORK","GAME","SESSION","LAGACTON","N1ACTO","N2ACTO","N3ACTO","N4ACTO","N5ACTO","N6ACTO","N7ACTO","ACTS","LAGACTS","PROPORT","LAGPROP","GRAPH","CLUSTER","LENGHT"
    2,0,"B",3.2,1,"A",2,2,"A",2,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,1,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",,1,1,0,1,0,0,0,3,,0.75,,"local",0.5,2.647
    3,0,"A",0.5,1,"B",2.5,2,"B",2.5,17,"B",2.5,16,"A",0.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,1,0,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,3,0.25,0.75,"local",0.5,2.647
    4,0,"B",2.5,1,"A",-1,2,"B",1.8,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",0.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",1,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,2,1,0.5,0.25,"local",0.5,2.647
    5,0,"B",2.5,1,"B",2.5,2,"A",-1,17,"A",0.5,16,"B",3.2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,0,1,1,0,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,2,2,0.5,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    6,0,"A",2,1,"B",2.5,2,"A",2,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",3.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,1,0,1,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,2,2,0.5,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    7,0,"B",1.8,1,"B",1.8,2,"B",2.5,17,"B",2.5,16,"A",2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,0,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,2,0.25,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    8,0,"A",2,1,"B",2.5,2,"B",2.5,17,"A",3.5,16,"A",3.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,1,0,0,1,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,2,1,0.5,0.25,"local",0.5,2.647
    9,0,"B",2.5,1,"B",1.8,2,"B",1.8,17,"A",2,16,"A",3.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,0,0,1,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",1,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,2,2,0.5,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    10,0,"B",1.8,1,"B",1,2,"B",1.8,17,"B",2.5,16,"A",2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,0,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,2,0.25,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    11,0,"B",3.2,1,"A",0.5,2,"B",1.8,17,"A",3.5,16,"A",3.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,0,1,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,1,0,1,1,0,0,0,3,1,0.75,0.25,"local",0.5,2.647
    12,0,"B",2.5,1,"A",0.5,2,"B",2.5,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,2,3,0.5,0.75,"local",0.5,2.647
    13,0,"B",2.5,1,"A",0.5,2,"B",3.2,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",0.5,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,0,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,2,2,0.5,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647
    14,0,"B",3.2,1,"A",2,2,"A",3.5,17,"B",3.2,16,"A",2,4,,"",,,"",,,"",,0,1,1,0,1,,,,"local","co","colc1fir",0,1,1,0,1,0,0,0,3,2,0.75,0.5,"local",0.5,2.647

I have no idea how good this is! :) No, I'm not associated with any companies that make or market this. And, no, I've never even tried it out before. You now know everything about it (almost) that I do.

Best of luck.

Read a .ssd01 data file from (ancient) SAS Version 6 (for Python/R)

1 Answers