Description/Contents: The Extraction System of Agricultural Statistics (ESAS) provides users with an extensive collection of the most commonly requested physical and financial farm data, available in pre established or custom formats.

Getting started: Click on the Esas98.exe icon and follow the on screen instructions. A standard Statistics Canada screen will appear offering you a choice of either English or French texts.This will be followed by two screens outlining the Limited Use Data Product License Agreement. Scroll down, click on Accept, click on Continue and select either Pre established or Customized tabulations.

Sources of other documentation: ESAS readme text.
ESAS guide.
ESAS reference manual.
Product user guide [PDF format; 1998 ed.].
Reference manual [PDF format; 1998 ed.].
See also: People, products and service, Agriculture Division./ Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada, 1997 (STC 21F0003XPB).

Features/hints

Selecting:  Using standard output formats, ESAS compiles pre-established tables featuring the disaggregated physical and financial data that is characteristic of the Whole Farm Data Base (WFDB). If the pre-established tables do not satisfy your particular needs, ESAS provides you with the option of creating a custom tabulation. This option allows you to rapidly look at specific data by enabling you to select only the variables you require. Custom tabulation allows you to produce tables by combining the available data types or data variables such as years, regions, farm types, and revenue classes.

Manipulating: By selecting the  pre-established format style the following will appear on screen.

From the toolbar choose the type of Data, Reference Year, Province and/or Census Region, Farm Type, Revenue Class, and Output format that you want. The Output selection allows for detailed and summary Reports, frequency Distributional Tables and the transfer of data to a printer.

Downloading: Once you have made selections for each of the items listed in the status box, you are ready to produce either a report, a summary report or a distributional table. When you select Output on the main menu bar, a window appears showing the available output and display options. The availability of the output formats varies according to the type of data selected. Once you have chosen an output option and the system has processed your selection, a screen will
appear offering a various options including the creation of a disk file. To do this, choose the Create disk file option. A screen will appear which asks: Once you have made a selection, a screen will ask you to provide a file name. It will indicate in which directory the file will be saved. You can change the directory by pressing the arrow at the end of the “Save in:” field. After providing this information, you can save your file. You can review the record layout of your file by either viewing it on-screen or printing it. These choices are available on the Output screen. Warning: Once a Lotus file has been created, depending on the selections, it may be necessary to enlarge the column widths in order to view the various field codes.

Printing: From the output screen select an on-line printer and press the print button.

Exiting: The last function offered on the main menu bar is Quit. It allows you to quit the system and switch to either custom or pre established tabulation.
To quit the system, select Yes from the menu. A message will appear asking you to verify this selection. ESAS also allows you to switch from pre established to custom tabulation and back without restarting the system. If you wish to switch options, select either Pre established or Custom and the system will change to your selection.

Cheat Sheet by: Daniel Warchow.
Data Library, University of Toronto.
Date: 23/07/99.