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st: RE: alt to inlist?


From   "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   st: RE: alt to inlist?
Date   Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:36:33 -0000

I don't know which FAQ you are referring to. 

It might be 

http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/selectid.html

which points to 

http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/characteristics.html

which suggests a solution based on -merge-. On 
the information provided, that sounds like the nicest
solution. 

The statement that -inlist()- 

"doesn't like it when one of the arguments in the list doesn't exist"

is in my experience false. And in principle I don't believe it! 
My guess is that you are getting mixed up between literal 
strings and names of string variables. 

. sysuse auto 
(1978 Automobile Data)

. l make if inlist(word(make,1), "Ford", "Reagan", "Clinton", "Bush", "any one else") 

     +--------------+
     | make         |
     |--------------|
 24. | Ford Fiesta  |
 25. | Ford Mustang |
     +--------------+

Nick 
[email protected] 

Danielle H. Ferry

> Is there something like inlist which does not require that 
> all arguments
> exist? I would like to keep observations where varname = a or 
> b or c or d or
> ... But  it could be that varname never takes the value of d. 
> Another issue is
> that my list of arguments is v. long (~145), so a simple or 
> statement is not
> possible. I found a stata faq that suggested using inlist, 
> but this doesn't
> like it when one of the arguments in the list doesn't exist, 
> and my varname is
> a string, so I'd have to write many of these inlist 
> statements (b/c the limit
> is 10). 

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