too many variables for Stata15 IC?

[Alan Alders]

Hi all
I am trying to open a dataset with 2,122 variables and approx 500,000 participants.
I am opening this on Stata/IC 15.1 and getting the message "no room to add more variables - up to 2,048 variables are allowed with this version of Stata. Versions are available that allow up to 32,767 variables."

My problem is that the dataset won't even open for the first 2,048 variables such that at present, nothing is showing up in my data browser at all. Based on the error message,"no room to add more variables" I would have thought they would have at least showed 2,048 of the variables...

Has anybody encountered this before - is there a workaround or do I just need to purchase the newest version?

Thanks

[Leonardo Guizzetti]

The error appears because the dataset is too large and the default behaviour of -use- is to use all variables. To get around this, you need to specify specific variables by name, or a contfguous range of variables. To see what is included in the dataset, you can still use -describe-. For example:

describe using datasetname
use my_varlist using datasetname

Where -datasetname- is replaced by the name or path to you dataset, and -my_varlist- are the list of variables you want to import. Here you will need to ensure that you are within the variable limits.

To see how you can specify a -varlist- using names, wildcards or ranges, see the output of -help varlist-.

[daniel klein]

Has anybody encountered this before - is there a workaround or do I just need to purchase the newest version?

Technically, a new version (or: release) would not help. The IC (intercooled) is now called BE (basic ediction) but the variable limits are the same. You would need to purchase another edition (also: flavor) of Stata, such as Stata SE (standard edition, used to be: special edition).

On topic: also, see usesome from SSC.