Hi there,

the ODBC import tool is a very powerful tool and I appreciate it much!
However, while working with it I came across some situations when the option of importing as matrix would be nice
e.g. via data .... --odbc --matrix.

Here are my thoughts:

1) When working with multiple databases (with different structures) in order to combine information the necessary steps are:  work with 'nulldata' command, creating an appropriate observation index, use the odbc import, change the series to a matrix, use 'nulldata --preserve' and start with the next odbc import. This works fine. The point is, that loops for subsequent sql statements over the whole script are impossible e.g. when creating a panel.

2) If the observation string is cryptic like 1/1/FK/2012Q1 importing as matrix would provide an easy way of using the obs-format option to specify the rownames of the matrix and get without the need of a 'manual intervention' the 'help information for the obs-string' into GRETL ( Matrix_Index_1stEntry    London 1 ...). The usual series name would be the colname.

3) For the right sizing of the index it is crucial to now the length of an data imported via odbc. If this length is 'endogenous' a count sql statement provides the needed information. Again if I want to work the script automatically I need to import a whole series with only one value and have to rescue this value as scalar (or matrix).

What do you think? Is it possible to add such an option without much effort? Or should it better be an update to the 'mread' function?

Cheers
Leon