[Gretl-users] Re: Gretl crashed again while opening data series with data string that gretl didn't like.
On Sun, 29 Sep 2019, Fred Engst wrote:
Sorry, Allin, more work for you.
When I opened excel file downloaded from FRED called usrec.xls
window opened asking import from c1 r1, so I clicked OK,
it crashed.
This is repeatable.
I'm not seeing a crash on Linux. Could you send me a copy of your
usrec.xls in case it differs somehow from mine, please?
I found out that the reason for crash has to do with the headers
from the FRED file that had a lot of information before the real
data starts on row 11.
After deleting the first 10 rows, if I save the file
1. in csv format, it will be OK. The dates are ok too.
2. in xlsx format, it will not crash, but the dates were not read-in. I had to set the
dates myself.
3. In xls format, I get this message:
Expected numeric data, found string:
"1854-12-01" at row 2, column 1
Perhaps you need to adjust the starting column or row?
I'm seeing that message on Linux, but no crash.
So, it shouldn’t crash just because I imported the wrong kind of
data.
Agreed, it shouldn't.
Furthermore, there is some kind of inconsistency between the
different file format when gretl deciding on the date value.
The USREC.xls that I downloaded from FRED is broken (inconsistent)
in the dates column. Dates up till 1899-12-01 are flagged as
strings, but those from 1900-01-01 are not. This is confusing gretl.
Allin