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Re: st: loops


From   "Svend Juul" <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   Re: st: loops
Date   Sun, 23 Sep 2007 10:16:45 +0200

Arun wrote:
 
I am dealing with huge datasets for which I have to 
estimate percentile exposure time within two to three 
subsets. I noticed something that happened there and 
tried duplicating it with a stata example dataset 
[webuse beetle] and I noticed it again. Attached below 
is the do file modified for beetle dataset.
 
/* Stata/IC 10.0 for Macintosh */
/* Do file to assess LD10-90 for beetle.dta */
/* Obtain beetle from webuse beetle */
use ~/desktop/beetle.dta
gen p=r/n
forvalues i=1/3 {
glm p ldose if beetle==`i', f(b)
forvalues j=0.1(0.1)0.9 {
local k=`j'*100
display as text "LD `k' = " as result (log(`j'/(1-`j'))-_b[_cons])/_b [ldose]
}
}
 
A part of the result for beetle.dta looks like this...
...
LD 10 = 1.7169257
LD 20 = 1.7389921
LD 30 = 1.7536588
LD 40 = 1.7656816
LD 50 = 1.7767148
LD 60 = 1.787748
LD 70 = 1.7997708
LD 80 = 1.8144375
LD 89.99999999999999 = 1.8365039

Why is this last LD 90 showing as 89.99... ... . 
Am I doing something odd (bad math) in the do file?
 
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
You do things right, but computers (not only Stata) 
do have limited precision; see, e.g., 
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/prec.html <http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/prec.html> .
 
Take a look at this:
 
   . local k=1/3
 
   . display `k'
   .33333333
 
   . display "`k'"
   .3333333333333333
 
If a macro is expanded to a text string it contains the 
result in double precision. If you let -display- display
it, you see fewer digits. This means that you could write
 
   display "LD " `k' " = ..."
 
rather than
 
   display "LD `k' = ..."
 
to get:
 
   LD 90 = 1.8365039
 
Hope this helps
Svend
 
 
________________________________________________________ 
 
Svend Juul
Institut for Folkesundhed, Afdeling for Epidemiologi
(Institute of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology)
Vennelyst Boulevard 6 
DK-8000 Aarhus C,  Denmark 
Phone, work:  +45 8942 6090 
Phone, home:  +45 8693 7796 
Fax:          +45 8613 1580 
E-mail:       [email protected] 
_________________________________________________________ 

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