Martin Weiss wrote:
I was wondering if anyone apart from me has been bitten by -preserve-? I
recently preserved data, then dropped half my data to carry out some
calculations and later forgot the preserve-status and saved. Now call me
foolish, but in the heat of the action, it is easy to forget about the
status of your data, isn`t it?
So: is there a mechanism to alert me to this danger, and if not, should
there be one?
Martin Weiss
================================================================
The most dangerous thing you did was probably not to use -preserve- and
forget that, but to save your data using the SAME filename as before.
Here are a few, very simple, very logical, and very safe rules to follow:
1. Modifications intended to be permanent should be made in a do-file,
never interactively.
2. This do-file should start with a command reading data (typically
-use-) and end with a -save- command, saving the modified data with
a NEW name.
3. Give this do-file a name that tells what it does. My suggestion:
use a gen_ prefix: gen_alpha7.do is the to-file that generates the
new alpha7.dta dataset.
4. Don't mix data management activities and analysis commands in the
same do-file.
You can find a more elaborate version of this advice in S. Juul: An
Introduction to Stata for Health Researchers. Stata Press 2006.
Take care!
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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