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st: a tip on random integers


From   "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   st: a tip on random integers
Date   Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:56:04 -0000

A small detail arose in a recent posting
of Svend Juul's that comes up frequently
elsewhere, so that a brief comment seems worthwhile. 

Svend wanted to fake a dataset including 
a month variable running over 1..12 so
he coded 

. gen month = int(1 + 12 * uniform())

This is fine and works, as would 

. gen month = 1 + int(12 * uniform())

but there is a neater way to do it: 

. gen month = ceil(12 * uniform()) 

The story is that -uniform()- emits random 
numbers between 0 and 1, but we often want random integers
over a different range, usually 1 up, so we must multiply
_and_ round to integers. 

Many people have come across an integer function
in other software long since, so they have wired
in their memories the idea of using -int()-, which
was the first rounding function in Stata. But as -int()-
rounds down, you need to correct that by adding 1
whenever the desired range starts at 1. 

However, -ceil()-, short for ceiling, rounds up
and gets you there directly. 

There is another illustration of this in Bill Gould's
latest Mata column in the Stata Journal. 

This is already a Stata Journal Tip on -ceil()- and 
-floor()-: 

SJ-3-4  dm0002  . . . . . . . . Stata tip 2: Building with floors and ceilings
        Q4/03   SJ 3(4):446--447                                 (no commands)
        tips for using floor() and ceil()

although not with this example. 


Nick 
[email protected] 

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