trouble opening .dta file from WRDS

[vas chigurupati]

Hello Folks,
I have trouble opening a .dta file downloaded after running a query using the web interface on WRDS. Getting r(610) and the file is not in stata format error message. I have stata 12.1 IC version. I have no trouble opening some past data from WRDS dating few years back. Did something change with either STATA or with WRDS on the way we are supposed to use? Any help/suggestions appreciated very much.
Thanks.

[Joseph Coveney]

I have stata 12.1 IC version.

Well, according to this:

Stata dataset.
A Stata version 14 dataset.

[vas chigurupati]

Thank you very much Joseph. I am not trying to go through the route of ODBC and directly accessing WRDS through STATA as I am used to web interface and found it more user friendly. I see the downloaded file is 27kb and it does have data, jumbled of course, as I tried to open with txt editor but it wont open with STATA. So, I need version 14 or above in this case for it to work? Thanks again

[Joseph Coveney]

So, I need version 14 or above in this case for it to work?

That would be my guess.

To be honest, I know nothing about WRDS (never heard of it before, didn't even know what the initialism stood for) and so took 15 seconds to Google WRDS Stata out of curiosity. Up popped that page.

Higher up, it seems to say that you can download datasets in comma-separated value text files, too. If you don't want to use ODBC, then maybe you can do that from Stata 12.

[vas chigurupati]

Thank you.