How to open SPSS metadata files in either SAS or Stata or R or Excel?

Question

I have some SPSS metadata files (*.mdd). However, I do not have SPSS installed on my computer and I do not know how to use SPSS. I want to open the files in either Stata, SAS, R or Excel. Stat-Transfer only allows for SAV and portable files to be converted, and I am not familiar with MySQL either. Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

mdd files are produced by SPSS Data Collection, not by SPSS Statistics or Modeler. There is an OLEDB driver for these, but you would need to contact the new owner of Data Collection, UNICOM Systems, Inc., a Division of UNICOM Global, or unicomsi.com to see about availability. Of course, you would need an app that supports OLEDB.

Answer 2

To expand on what @JKP stated, .mdd files are really only useful if you're trying to import data collected by a SPSS data collection server, and it's in a non-flat file. I worked on a Data Collection Server for 3 years and the only time I needed an .mdd file in SPSS statistics was to import a file into SPSS statistics that was set up incorrectly on the server.

The script(s) languages used in the .mdd are proprietary, so there isn't much use for them ouside of either SPSS statistics or SPSS Data collection.