Data Files

The Virginia Youth Survey data are available for download for 2011 and 2013. Each zip folder has the data for Virginia in all available formats as well as the codebook. Each 2013 zip folder contains: the codebook, Access database, SAS input and format programs, SPSS database, and a dat file. SAS programs are provided to convert the ASCII data into SAS for use in that statistical package.

2013 Middle School High School
State-level State-level
Central Central
Eastern Eastern
Northern Not Available
Northwestern Northwestern
Southwestern Southwestern

2011

 Not Available State-level

How to Use Virginia Youth Survey Data Files

Using ASCII Files:

  • Save the ASCII data file to a folder on your computer.
  • Specify column locations for each variable as needed by the software you are using.

Note: How to use the ASCII data varies from one software package to another. Column positions for each variable usually have to be specified. Column positions for each variable can be found in the documentation for each year’s data. Consult your software documentation for more information.

Using SAS Files:

  • Save the SAS Format Program, SAS Input Program, and the ASCII data files to a folder on your computer.
  • Open the SAS Format Program in SAS and edit it according to the instructions included in the comments in the program.
  • Run the program. This will create a permanent format library in the folder specified in the SAS program.
  • Open the SAS Input Program in SAS and edit it according to the instructions included in the comments in the program.
  • Run the program. This will read the ASCII data file and convert it into a permanent SAS dataset for the particular year in the folder specified in the SAS program.

Note: Each year of VYS data should go in its own folder because each year has its own format library. Format libraries are not comparable across years.

How do I use the SAS format library?

The SAS format library contains the formats used to make SAS output more readable. Formats are linked to the data so that results are displayed as words (“Male” or “Female”, for instance) instead of numbers (1 or 2). The SAS VYS data file is designed to use its companion format library.

The following example SAS program shows how to use the format library. It assumes that both the data file and the format library are in “c:\data”. Note that the program contains two libname statements. The first libname statement indicates where the data file is located; the second libname statement indicates where the format library is located.

libname mydata ‘c:\data’; /* tells SAS where the data are */
libname library ‘c:\data’; /* tells SAS where the formats are */
proc freq data=mydata.yrbs2005;
tables q2;
run;

Using the format library is recommended but technically is optional. If you do not want to use the format library, include the following statement at the start of your SAS program:

options nofmterr; /* tells SAS to not look for formats */

Please note that each year of YRBS data has its own format library. Format libraries are not the same across years of data.

For further information on using format libraries, please consult your SAS documentation.

Using SPSS Files:

  • Save the SPSS syntax file and the ASCII data files to a folder on your computer.
  • Open the SPSS syntax file in SPSS and edit it according to the instructions included in the comments in the file.
  • Run the syntax file. This will read the ASCII data file and convert it into a permanent SPSS data file that includes labels and formats.

Using Access Files:

  • Save the Access file to a folder on your computer.
  • Uncompress the Access file.

Note: The file is stored in compressed form to improve download time; it will need to be uncompressed before it can be used. See File Formats Help for more information on uncompressing the file.

Technical Support

Last Updated: December 6, 2016