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Re: st: real vs destring


From   Phil Schumm <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: real vs destring
Date   Fri, 4 Apr 2008 09:30:56 -0500

On Apr 4, 2008, at 9:10 AM, Nicholas Harrigan wrote:
I am trying to recode a variable containing large numbers which are currently held as strings.

I am wondering why real and destring give different results
<snip>

gen new_var = real(old_var)
gen new_var2 = old_var
destring new_var2, replace

This is because your values (e.g., 5560001090 and 5560001108) are too large to be stored accurately as floats. -destring- is smart enough to recognize this, and, I believe, notifies you when it creates a variable as a double. You would get the same result if you used

gen double new_var = real(old_var)

instead (see [U] 12.2.2 Numeric storage types for more information).



Does this mean I should use always use destring in my coding instead of real?

Not a bad idea, since -destring- will balk if the conversion involves a loss of information. However, you should always give some thought as to how you are storing your data and its implications for what you are doing with them.


-- Phil

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