help xpose dialog: xpose
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Title
[D] xpose -- Interchange observations and variables
Syntax
xpose, clear [options]
options description
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clear reminder that untransposed data will be lost if not
previously saved
format use largest numeric display format from untransposed
data
format(%fmt) apply specified format to all variables in transposed
data
varname add variable _varname containing original variable names
promote use the most compact data type that preserves numeric
accuracy
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* clear is required.
Menu
Data > Create or change data > Other variable-transformation commands >
Interchange observations and variables
Description
xpose transposes the data, changing variables into observations and
observations into variables. All new variables -- that is, those created
by the transposition -- are made the default storage type. Thus any
original variables that were strings will result in observations
containing missing values. (If you transpose data twice, you will lose
the contents of string variables.)
Options
clear is required and is supposed to remind you that the untransposed
data will be lost (unless you have saved the data previously).
format specifies that the largest numeric display format from your
untransposed data be applied to the transposed data.
format(%fmt) specifies that the specified numeric display format be
applied to all variables in the transposed data.
varname adds the variable _varname to the transposed data containing the
original variable names. Also, with or without the varname option,
if the variable _varname exists in the dataset before transposition,
those names will be used to name the variables after transposition.
Thus transposing the data twice will (almost) yield the original
dataset.
promote specifies that the transposed data use the most compact numeric
data type that preserves the original data accuracy.
If your data contain any variables of type double, all variables in
the transposed data will be of type double.
If variables of type float are present, but there are no variables of
type double or long, the transposed variables will be of type float.
If variables of type long are present, but there are no variables of
type double or float, the transposed variables will be of type long.
Examples
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Setup
. webuse xposexmpl
List the original data
. list
Interchange observations and variables, and store original variable names
in _varname
. xpose, clear varname
List the results
. list
Restore original data
. xpose, clear
A list shows that the data have been restored
. list
Interchange observations and variables, store original variable names in
_varname, and use %6.2f format on numeric variables
. xpose, clear varname format(%6.2f)
List the results
. list
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Setup
. webuse xposexmpl, clear
Describe the original data
. describe
Interchange observations and variables, store original variable names in
_varname, and apply largest numeric display format from untransformed
data to variables in transposed data
. xpose, clear varname format
Describe the resulting data
. describe
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Also see
Manual: [D] xpose
Help: [D] reshape, [D] stack
