# convert .xls to .dat



## realjag (Jul 2, 2003)

Hello again,

I have a large amount of data in excel that I have to convert to a .dat file. The dat file is needed to put it into another software program conquest. 

I tried converting to a text and then renaming to dat - that didn't work. I also tried to save as a csv and that didn't work.

Any ideas on convert from xls to dat?

Thanks in advance.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

What program will be using the .dat file? There are a lot of programs that call their data files .dat but often they have unique methods of formatting - you may need to use an instruction file for the program or something like that to import the data.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

Just to note, there is a medical imaging program Conquest, and some wargame and who knows what else....


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## realjag (Jul 2, 2003)

Thanks for the reply.

The program is called Conquest. My girlfriend is being required to use it by her advisor for her senior project. The kicker is that her advisor doesn't even know how to use it.

I still haven't seen the manual but I wondered the same thing about an import function, I'll check.

Is a dat file different from a CSV file? It appears to me that a CSV is a comma separated file whereas a dat is a comma delimited file. True? Is there a difference?

Just for reference, here is a link to the website about conquest:
http://www.assess.com/Software/ConQuest.htm


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

Hi again,

I often use another program that has dat files and they are more tab delimited.
I looked at a copy of Conquest and you will see it has what are called cmd files as well as dat files and several other more. The cmd files are like what I use as instruction files - if you open up the one called Ex1.cmd, you will see that it says "format id 1-5 responses 12-23;" (among other things) and if you look at the dat file Ex1.dat the data is like this:

11792 ddadccdbbacd 
40016 acdabaeadacd 
655 acdcccecbaca 
31140 eccdbcebbacb 
40513 adddbcebbacc 
1042 acdcbcebbacd 
(despite the jagged look) the ID is the first 5 columns and the responses start at column 12.
After fooling around with it for a bit, it would seem that you will have your best luck if you save your Excel file as a prn file (space delimited). You will then have your various columns aligned neatly and you can figure out what to write in the cmd file from that.
Good luck!:up:


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

As above, the ".dat" file is a proprietary format for the Conquest program, unless you know the exact data format it uses then only an "import" (if Conquest supports it) would be useable.

Regretable its a widely used file description, none of which have any commonality as to format. Its the file system equivalent to a surname like "Smith"....


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