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Re: st: Drop variables satisfying a condition


From   David Kantor <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: Drop variables satisfying a condition
Date   Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:17:09 -0400

David Elliot wrote in response to the question from Guillermo Villa:

[...]
       quietly summarize `var'
       if `r(sum)' == 0  { // r(sum) is returned by summarize
            drop `var'
            display as txt "Dropping " as result "`var'"
           }
[...]

I don't think that testing `r(sum)' == 0 is appropriate. This indicates that the sum of the values is 0. I think you really want to test whether all the values are 0. And it's easy to construct an example where the sum is 0 but not all values are 0.

I would suggest...

capture confirm `var' == 0
if ~_rc {
drop `var'
}

Another thing you may want to test is whether r(sd) ==0 after a -summarize-, which tells you that the values are constant.

Also note that the quotes around r(sum) were unnecessary, though that is a moot point.

HTH
--David

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