Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your GDT file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert GDT to another file type
To convert GDT datasets to another format, you need gretl or other Data software.
Convert a file to GDT
To convert other file formats to the "Econometric Data File" file type, you need software like gretl or a similar tool.
About GDT files
The .GDT file extension has two distinct and highly specialized primary uses. In the academic and research world, it represents a data file created by gretl (Gnu Regression, Econometrics and Time-series Library). These files contain complex datasets, including variable definitions, observations, and metadata for cross-sectional or time-series economic analysis. Gretl saves these as either structured XML or compressed GZIP files. The other major use case is the Gerätedatentransfer (GDT) standard, a crucial protocol used almost exclusively in the German healthcare sector to exchange plain-text patient data between Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and devices like ECGs or spirometers. Users often need to convert gretl .GDT files because the native format is proprietary to gretl and cannot be directly parsed by mainstream data tools like Microsoft Excel, RStudio, or SPSS without exporting first. This causes serious friction when sharing datasets with colleagues who do not have gretl installed. Medical GDT files face a different problem: while they are plain ASCII text, their strict line-by-line coding makes them difficult for non-technicians to read or migrate into standard SQL or JSON databases. For gretl data, the best target formats are CSV or XLSX, ensuring full compatibility with Excel and Python while sacrificing gretl-specific model metadata. Medical GDT files are usually converted to TXT, JSON, or standard XML for system debugging or integration. Because GDT files are either tightly coupled to specific econometric software or adhere to regional medical protocols, generic conversion is challenging. Often, only the original software can properly read or export the data. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your GDT file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert GDT file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use gretl or similar software from the "Econometric Data Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to GDT, try gretl or another comparable tool in the "Econometric Data Storage" category.
The GDT Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our GDT converter.