Tips for using the Microdata Examiner

1. Do not submit an extract request while another request of yours is still executing.

2. When creating a view, avoid combining data from more than 5 tables.
3. When creating a view that combines annual and monthly data, consider creating a separate view for the monthly data, especially if there are more than a handful of annual variables. Each annual variable that is included in a view with monthly variables is duplicated 11 times.
4. When extracting data in ASCII format, the "comma" option in the "Delimiter" box under "Formatting Options" in fact produces a Tab-delimited file. To properly read this file in SAS, the following options should be specifed in the INFILE statement:

   firstobs=2 delimiter = '09'x

   "firstobs=2" skips the first line, which just contains the variable names, while "delimiter='09'x" indicates that the file is tab-delimited
5. There is no way to copy another user's view. You will have to create the view from scratch.
6. To make a copy of a view that uses a different input file than the original view, do the following:
   • Go to "Manage data views".
   • In the view to be copied, select the new input file to be used and give the new view a name.
   • Click "Update" and follow the directions.
7. When a view is used to display or extract households, a message is displayed indicating any result variables used by the view that are no longer available. The user must then either recreate those variables or delete them from the view before the view can be used. Note that this process only works if individual result variables are missing from a result file, but the result file itself still exists. If an entire result file has been deleted, the view will become corrupted, and a new one will have to be created.