RE: st: number of dates in x axis

[Nick Cox <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk>]

You are burdening me with questions that I can't answer! You are not showing me the code that fails. Also, you are guessing again. 

But it seems that you have daily dates. 

Applying a %tm format to daily dates is legal but pointless. It gives you a result that does not apply to your dates. 

The number 18110 is 

(D) 1 August 2009 as a daily date 

_but_ 

(M) March 3469 as a monthly date, i.e. a date almost 1460 years into the future. That's what 

But that is not going to fail. 

In my first post I gave an example of a format for daily dates that shows month and year: %d_m_Y. 

I am going to try a third and last time. If you show me the code that fails, I will try to tell you your mistake. Otherwise what you don't tell us remains inscrutable. 

Nick 
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk 

Maria Ana Vitorino

Thanks. My code is a little more complicated than the example so I  
didn't want to burden you with it. But I understand your position.
I think the issue has to do with the formatting of the date  
variable...I can't seem to get it to work.
This is what I'm getting:

. generate date1=date(date,"MY")

. format date1 %tm

. list date1 date in 1

     +------------------+
     |  date1      date |
     |------------------|
  1. | 3469m3   Aug2009 |
     +------------------+

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Ana


On May 24, 2011, at 2:18 PM, Nick Cox wrote:

> % sacrificial line.
>
> Nick
> n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nick Cox
> Sent: 24 May 2011 19:16
> To: 'statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu'
> Subject: RE: st: number of dates in x axis
>
> Please: I want to see the _exact_ code you typed. No commentary, no  
> paraphrase, no speculation. If you want to debug your code yourself,  
> feel free to do so. If you want me to try to debug your code, I am  
> happy to try, but that means your code, not your thoughts about what  
> might be wrong with your code.
>
> Nick
> n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu 
> ] On Behalf Of Maria Ana Vitorino
> Sent: 24 May 2011 19:11
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: st: number of dates in x axis
>
> I tried your code again (this time by pasting it into the do-file
> editor instead into the command window) and it worked. But my version
> is not working (I still get the invalid label specifier message).
> Could it be because my time variable has gaps? Also, how can one setup
> the "11" in your for loop without having to make mental calculations
> regarding the number of months?
> Thanks for the help!
> Ana
>
>
> On May 24, 2011, at 1:31 PM, Nick Cox wrote:
>
>> Yes. Show me the _exact_ code you typed.
>>
>> Nick
>> n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
>> ] On Behalf Of Maria Ana Vitorino
>> Sent: 24 May 2011 18:29
>> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
>> Subject: Re: st: number of dates in x axis
>>
>> Thanks Nick.
>> I tried running your example but I got the error message "invalid
>> label specifier, :  15341 15400 15461 ..."
>> Any suggestions?
>> Thanks!
>> Ana
>>
>> On May 24, 2011, at 4:20 AM, Nick Cox wrote:
>>
>>> There is relevant material at
>>>
>>> Stata 7: How can I get "nice" date labels on a graph?
>>>
>>> http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/graphics/nicedate.html
>>>
>>> StataCorp have added this annotation:
>>>
>>> "Note: This FAQ is relevant for users of releases prior to Stata 8.
>>> For Stata 8 see update from 12 September 2003."
>>>
>>> In fact the techniques there do remain useful for some problems.
>>>
>>> Here's an example with different data. Here I decide that I want
>>> labels every 2 months from 1 January 2002 to 1 January 2003. I loop
>>> over the dates and put them in a bag, namely a local macro.
>>>
>>> sysuse xtline1
>>> xtset person day
>>>
>>> forval i = 1(2)11 {
>>> 	local thisdate = mdy(`i', 1, 2002)
>>> 	local mydates `mydates' `thisdate'
>>> }
>>>
>>> local thisdate = mdy(1,1,2003)
>>> local mydates `mydates' `thisdate'
>>>
>>> xtline calories, overlay xlabel(`mydates', format(%d_m_Y) ang(v))
>>>
>>> See also
>>>
>>> SJ-7-4  gr0030  . Stata tip 55: Better axis labeling for time  
>>> points/
>>> intervals
>>>     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>>> N. J. Cox
>>>     Q4/07   SJ 7(4):590--592                                 (no
>>> commands)
>>>     tip on labeling graphs for time points and time intervals
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 4:45 AM, Maria Ana Vitorino
>>> <vitorino@wharton.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have the following data:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> +------------------------+
>>>> | Person   Weight      Date    |
>>>> |------------------------|
>>>> 1. |  Name1       50      17988  |
>>>> 2. |  Name1       55      18110  |
>>>> 3. |  Name1       50      18141  |
>>>> 4. |  Name1       45      18171  |
>>>> 5. |    ...        .      . |
>>>> |------------------------|
>>>> 6. |  Name2       85      18110 |
>>>> 7. |  Name2       88      18171 |
>>>> 8. |  Name3       68      17988 |
>>>> 9. |    ...        .                       . |
>>>> 10. |     ..        .      .                 |
>>>> |------------------------|
>>>> 11. |  NameN        .               . |
>>>> +------------------------+
>>>>
>>>> The labels for the date variables are the months' names (plus year)
>>>> (e.g.
>>>> "jan2006", "feb2007", etc)
>>>>
>>>> If I do something like:
>>>>
>>>> xtline Weight , overlay  i(Person) t(Date) xlab(, valuelabel)
>>>>
>>>> The month names show up on the xaxis BUT only every 6 months or so.
>>>> How can
>>>> I control the number of "ticks" (AND month names ) that show up on
>>>> the
>>>> x-axis? (suppose I want a tick every 2 months or even every month)
>>>>
>>
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