Starting with Stata version 8.2, it is
possible to save and use SAS XPORT (.xpt) file directly from within Stata.
If your Stata 8 is not fully up to date, then see Installing, Customizing, Updating Stata to make sure your copy of Stata is
fully up to date. Reading and writing SAS XPORT files can be useful for
creating data files for submission to the FDA, as well as assisting in
transferring data between other statistical packages, such as SAS.

Creating .xpt files

Let’s use a file called hsb2 from our
web site and use that as an example. Note
that this data file contains value labels.

use https://stats.idre.ucla.edu/stat/stata/notes/hsb2, clear
(highschool and beyond (200 cases))

Below we create hsb2.xpt (and
it also creates a file with formats called formats.xpf). See the help
for fdasave for
information about how to use the .xpf file.

fdasave hsb2

Instead, we could write a file with SAS code
for making the value labels like this. This time we save the file as hsb2a.

fdasave hsb2a, vallabfile(sascode)

and instead Stata creates hsb2.xpt and
hsb2.sas (which has the code for creating the SAS formats associated
with the value labels).

Reading the .xpt file in SAS, Example 1

Here is an example of how to read the file
hsb2 that we created. In this example, we will force SAS to ignore the
formats (value labels) using the OPTIONS NOFTMERR; option.

OPTIONS NOFMTERR;
libname in XPORT "c:datahsb2.xpt";

proc contents data=in.hsb2;
run;

In the example above, we use the libname
statement to point to the file c:datahsb2.xpt and then use proc
contents to have a look at the file assuming all looks good, then we can
run the next couple of steps to make a copy of the file as a regular SAS data
file.

data "c:datahsb2"
set in.hsb2;
run;

proc contents data="c:datahsb2";
run;

proc means data="c:datahsb2";
run;

proc print data="c:datahsb2"(obs=10);
run;

In the example above we use the data step to make a regular SAS data file called
c:datahsb2.sas7bdat and
then use proc contents, proc means, and proc print to inspect
that copy of the file. It is advisable to compare these results to a
decribe, summarize and list in 1/10 from the original Stata file.

Reading the .xpt file in SAS, Example 2

Here is an example of how to read the file
hsb2a that we created above, where we also included the
vallabfile(sascode) option. In this
example, we read the SAS program that wrote out the format file (which has the
Stata value labels).

%include "c:datahsb2a.sas";
libname in XPORT "c:datahsb2a.xpt";

proc contents data=in.hsb2a;
run;

In the example above, we use the %include statement to read in the file with the SAS formats (Stata value labels) and
then use the libname statement to point to the file c:datahsb2a.xpt and then use
proc contents to have a look at the
file. Assuming all looks good, then we can run the next couple of steps to
make a copy of the file as a regular SAS data file.

data "c:datahsb2";
set in.hsb2;
run;

proc contents data="c:datahsb2";
run;

proc means data="c:datahsb2";
run;

proc print data="c:datahsb2a"(obs=10);
run;

In the example above we use the data step to make a regular SAS data file called
c:datahsb2a.sas7bdat and
then use proc contents, proc means, and proc print to inspect
that copy of the file. It is advisable to compare these results to a
decribe, summarize and list in 1/10 from the original Stata file. To use
c:datahsb2a.sas7bdat in the future, say to get a proc means for
the data, you would type.

%include "c:datahsb2a.sas";
proc means data="c:datahsb2";
run;

Reading the .xpt file in SPSS

Reading the .xpt file in SPSS is very easy.  You simply
select File then Open and then for Files of Type select
SAS Transport file (*.xpt) and then point to, for example, c:datahsb2.xpt
and it will read that file.  However, you will not get the value labels.