[email protected]
>
> Please could somebody explain to me how this could occur:
>
> I want to generate a dataset with 6561 observations, with two
> variables, let us say x and y, which take values between -2 and 2,
> with step value 0.05. The aim of this is to test a function which I
> have programmed which is causing some trouble. Therefore I need 81
> occurences of x==-2, and 81 of x==-1.95 and so on for both x and y.
> If I construct x as follows (crude so feel free to suggest
> alternatives)
>
> egen ind=fill (1 2)
> replace ind=ind-1
> gen x=int(ind/81)
> replace x=(x/20)-2
>
> this should work, and does when the data is displayed to 2 decimal
> places. However closer examination of the data with the data browser
> shows some anomalies, where rather that x==-.95 it actually reads
> x==.-9499999. This occurs for many values in between -1 and 1 and
> attempts to rectify it using
>
> gen x2=round(x,0.05)
>
> have not bourne fruit. What am I missing?
>
You are missing the fact that Stata is holding the numbers in binary.
See (e.g.)
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/float.html
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/mod.html
and
[U] 16.10 Precision and problems therein.
Nick
[email protected]
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
