Amelia for Windows determines the input file format on the basis of the file extension you give it. Supported file types include: Excel 2-5,95-2000, Lotus WK1, Quattro WQ1,WB*, dBase2-5, Stata 4-7, Paradox 3-5, Genstat GSH, SAS PC 6.03-7.0, Minitab 8-13, Systat, MStat, Instat, Epi-Info, SPSS/Win, Gauss Data/Matrix (PC/Win/Unix), MatLab, S+ (PC/Unix/Text), Ascii comma delimited, Ascii space delimited, and Ascii tab delimited. Ascii/text data files must have variable names on the first line and missing data represented by a period (``.''). If you have problems on data input, try Ascii/text input, which is the simplest.
To make all these input options available, we have used the superb freeware DataLoad program written by David Baird. Input options ascii and Gauss are handled as expected, but for the other choices DataLoad does not offer data output or variable name input. Thus, we add generic variable names (var1, var2, etc.) to the file and provide a variable name editor on the input screen. Alternatively, you may choose to put the variable names in only after you load the imputed data sets into your software program for final analyses.
The output file name, after the path, must be at most 6
characters long and have no extension. The file extention will be
determined by the output file type toggle chosen (which is a button
you press below the output filename). The default is an ascii text or
``.txt'' file. Files may be outputted in the following formats: ASCII
character delimited (.TXT), ASCII formatted (.PRN), GAUSS data set
(.DAT), Lotus v1.0 (.WKS), Excel v2.1 (.XLS), Quattro v1.0 (.WQ1),
Symphony v1.0 (.WRK), dBase II (.DB2), dBase III (.DBF), Paradox v3.0
(.DB). Output file types are more limited than input filetypes because
is freeware, and relies on freeware applications to perform
its file translation. For a commercial option, you might consider
DBMSCopy
(see
http://www.conceptual.com/) and translate to and from Gauss
format data, in which case all the variable names will be retained.