Read Stata 13 files into R with rPython and pandas

stata13.R

# install.packages("rPython")
# requires pandas

stata13 <- function(dat,
                    convert.factors = TRUE){
    
  require("rPython")
  # make dat known to python
  python.assign('dat',dat)
  
  python.exec('import pandas as pd')
  
  # convert.factors
  if (convert.factors %in% c(TRUE, NA)) {
    python.exec('stata = pd.read_stata(dat)')
  } else{
    python.exec('stata = pd.read_stata(dat, convert_categoricals=False, convert_dates=True)')
  }
  
  # panda export as json
  python.exec('jso = stata.to_json()')
  
  #   # return a OrderedDict or loads will return an unordererd data.frame
  python.exec('from collections import OrderedDict')
  python.exec('statal = json.loads(jso, object_pairs_hook=OrderedDict)')

  stata_l <- (function (var.name) {
    python.command <- paste("_r_return = json.dumps( [", var.name, 
                            "] )", sep = "")
    python.exec(python.command, get.exception = FALSE)
    ret <- .C("py_get_var", "_r_return", not.found.var = integer(1), 
              resultado = character(1), PACKAGE = "rPython")
    if (ret$not.found.var) 
      stop("Variable not found")
    #message(ret$resultado)
    ret <- fromJSON(ret$resultado, nullValue=NA)
    if (length(ret) == 1) 
      ret <- ret[[1]]
    ret
  })('statal')

  stataDD <- data.frame(stata_l)
  return(stataDD)
}