The University of Cape Town make data available through it's DataFirst Portal.
All their data is made available in the following formats:
- SAS (sab7bdat)
- SPSS
- Stata (12)
I would like to import a dataset into R using the Haven package, which supports all of the above formats (it utilises the ReadStat Library).
Which would be the prefered format for doing this?
More specifically:
- Are there differences in terms of data available in the original formats?
- Are some formats closer to R's format than others, and does this affect the output?
- Are there differences in terms of speed? (less important)