[DDI-users] SAS format library-> ddi?

[Bob McConnaughey]

Larry et al.
   being more or less ignorant of DDI - ie I want to use the end products
but am not sure how much i need to know about xml details to do so
effectively, but being pretty familiar w/ SAS,  your code allows the SAS
format libraries to be completely described in XML as they are w/in SAS.
 That is it looks like you're allowing SAS ranges in the xml -> ddi
transformation/compliance process.  Which is terrific as i've had to go
though the steps of converting SAS ranges to "one-one" value labels when
converting SAS dataset to SPSS in order to use the DDI based documentation
tools that I've been trying out over the last few months.  Can the end user
tools themselves (eg Nesstar or something cheaper...) be reconfigured to
accept the equivalent of the SAS/Stata format ranges? or is that a
"conceptual" problem that the documentation packages avoid on principle?

eg..it would be very convenient and more parsimonious not to have to do the
equivalent of SPSS recodes or excessively lengthy sets of value labels and
instead have variables, say, education or age "formatted" into the groups
one wants for documentation w/out losing the original values. I had been
under the misapprehension (I hope) that DDI had a philosophical problem w/
"data ranges" - and am rather hoping that this was my misreading of how
documentation packages had been implemented - that is w/out incorporating
format ranges for convenience rather than by fiat.

thanks very much indeed.

bob mcconnaughey

westat/NIEHS epidemiology support


"the more I think I know, the less I see."
John Lennon
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