read_dta: Read a Stata '.dta' survey file

In retroharmonize: Ex Post Survey Data Harmonization

Read a Stata '.dta' survey file

Description

Import a survey dataset stored in Stata '.dta' format and convert it into a 'survey' object with harmonized metadata and labelled variables.

Usage

read_dta(file, id = NULL, doi = NULL, .name_repair = "unique")

Arguments

file	Path to a Stata '.dta' file.
id	Optional survey identifier. Defaults to the file name without extension.
doi	Optional DOI identifier for the survey.
.name_repair	Strategy for repairing invalid or duplicated column names. Passed to [haven::read_dta()].

Details

This function wraps [haven::read_dta()] and adds:

- error handling, - survey metadata creation, - 'rowid' normalization, - preservation of variable labels, - conversion of labelled variables, - and provenance metadata.

Variable labels are preserved using the '"label"' attribute.

Labelled variables are converted to harmonized labelled survey vectors where possible. Variables that inherit from 'haven_labelled' but do not contain valid label definitions are converted back to standard vectors.

If the file cannot be read, the function returns an empty 'survey' object and emits a warning.

Value

A 'survey' object inheriting from 'data.frame' and 'tbl_df'.

See Also

Other import functions: harmonize_survey_variables(), pull_survey(), read_csv(), read_rds(), read_spss(), read_surveys()

Examples

path <- system.file(
  "examples",
  "iris.dta",
  package = "haven"
)

survey_object <- read_dta(path)

attr(survey_object, "id")
attr(survey_object, "filename")

retroharmonize documentation built on May 21, 2026, 9:06 a.m.