When you are downloading data from Datastream, sometimes you get errors. Unfortunately they are not very clear.  We tried to make a list of the most common errors and the reasons why they occur.

$$”ER”, E100, INVALID CODE OR EXPRESSION ENTERED

  • The combination serie – datatype doesn’t exist
    Example: downloading P for an index (P only exists for Equities)
  • Requesting a static datatype in a time series request
    Example: the combination of an equity index and the datatype P
  • Changing the currency for ratio’s
    Example: requesting market to book value (MTBV) in a specific currency

$$”ER”, E100, ACCESS DENIED

  • The requested data isn’t part of our subscription
    Example: requesting non-bold annual or quarterly report items from WorldScope. See this post. The solution: use the Thomson One Banker Excel add-in to download this data instead of Datastream.

$$”ER”, 2361, NO DATA AVAILABLE

  • The requested serie didn’t exist in the requested time period.
    Example: requesting the stock price of Google from 1/1/2000 until 1/1/2001

$$”ER”, E601, DATA FOR … CANNOT BE RETRIEVED AT REQUESTED FREQUENCY

  • You are downloading for example quarterly data, but this item (…) is available on a yearly basis and there are other items in the request that are available on a quarterly basis.