Q:   I get the following error when trying to read a particular dataset from the CISER Data & Reproduction Archive.  What is the problem?

file da6847.raw not found
r(601);

A:   As a shortcut, many Stata commands (such as use, save, insheet, outsheet, infile, outfile and infix) add a default extension.

For example, if you type:
infix var1 1-6 var2 7-9 using filename
then Stata will assume that you are referring to filename.raw.

Many ASCII(text) files in the CISER Data & Reproduction Archive have no file extension at all. To prevent Stata from adding the default file extension to these, simply add a period to the end of the file name.

For example, if you wish to read the first two variables from the 1993 Natality Detail File, use:

infix year 1-4 rectype 5 using da6847.

If you omit the period, Stata will look in vain for da6847.raw and return the error message above.