I successfully got an extract into STATA to produce a dataset, but the var frequencies were not what I expected. I went back through my steps and found that I had not unzipped the extract; when I went back to do this the unzipped file had no extension. It runs the command file on this .raw file, but still the freqs don’t seem right. Please let me know if you think the no file extension piece is what’s at play here. If not, is there someplace on IPUMS site with freqs or sample sizes for each of the samples so I can compare. Thanks.
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I am unsure what would have caused your unzipped file to not have an extension. You can check the Codes tab (select “Case-count view”) for almost any variable to see a frequency by sample. If your counts are not matching the IPUMS website, then you should resubmit your data extract, download it, and unzip the file.
Since the STATA command file should not have run on an unzipped extract, I would also recommend checking that your working directory in STATA matches the location of your STATA command file and .dat file. It could be the case that you were inadvertently running a different version of the data file. This would explain the unexpected frequencies. Similarly, double-check that you are using the STATA command file that matches the name of your data extract.
I hope this helps.