fixed-width text
Generic space-delimited, fixed-width ASCII file best viewed in a web browser or text editor window.
Caution: this format is generated by PROC PRINT in SAS, which adds a header and variable list row every 32,767 lines (the maximum "page" size). Thus this output format does not work well as an import file for large extracts. The comma- and tab-delimited text format options do not have the extra header lines and are better formats for importing.

comma-delimited text
"CSV": Most common format for importing into other software packages including Microsoft Excel.
XML Excel file
XML format for direct use by Microsoft Excel (no importing required). Due to Excel limitations, this format will not support more than 65,535 records and 256 variables. An XML Excel file can be very large, typically more than 10 times the corresponding comma-delimited text file and twice the corresponding HTML table.

tab-delimited text
Common format for import into other software packages. Alternative to comma-delimited if values contain commas.

HTML table
Best viewed in web browser window. Can be read by Microsoft Excel. Use only with very small data sets.

Stata dataset.
A Stata version 14 dataset. Until further notice, please be aware of the problem with special missing values. See Using STATA with WRDS for more information.

SPSS dataset
An SPSS dataset with variable names truncated to 8 characters, and character values no longer than 256 characters.

SAS dataset (2 formats)
- Windows_32 is viewable with the free SAS System Viewer for Windows and is the native format for PC-SAS.

- Solaris_64 is native to the WRDS operating system. It is not viewable by the SAS System Viewer, but is readable by PC-SAS as a "foreign" dataset.

Both are version 9 datasets and have the same level of precision. Both are compatible with newer versions of Stat/Transfer and DBMS/Copy.

dBase file
Convenient format supported by many software packages; used to import and export data among different database and spreadsheet programs. TO OPEN IN MS ACCESS: The file name must have no more than 8 characters.

SAS transport file (PROC CPORT)
SAS portable file format for porting data sets among different operating systems.

SAS transport file (PROC COPY)
Older SAS portable file format for porting data sets among different operating systems; compatible with STAT/TRANSFER for STATA. Note, if your web query includes variables with names longer than 8 characters, this format will fail.