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Re: st: generate variable versus define scalar, with conditional statement


From   annoporci <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: generate variable versus define scalar, with conditional statement
Date   Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:25:56 +0800

scalar newscalar = open[mdy(1,3,2012)]

is

scalar newscalar = open[18995]


yes, I see, absolutely, I did try this also:

scalar newscalar = open[3jan2012]

but it didn't work, even after a tsset date, and there must be a logical explanation for that too, naturally, but I guess I ran out of ideas and stopped thinking.

Your suggestion to:

su `var' if date == mdy(1,3,2012), meanonly
     scalar `var'_ini = r(min)

works inside my loop over the list of variables `var', so that's what I'm
using now

That's better than generating mostly-missing variables, I'm sure.

thanks Nick!





On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:07:42 +0800, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:

It does work; it's just not what you want.

Stata is perfectly logical here.

scalar newscalar = open[mdy(1,3,2012)]

is

scalar newscalar = open[18995]

which will be missing or some value, depending on the size and details
of your dataset.

Stata is very good at syntax, but it's lousy at semantics. You want
Stata to be like a smart research assistant  and to look at
mdy(1,3,2012) and to realise what you _mean_, which is to go and find
the observation for that date, etc. Stata only notices what you _say_.

But no; Stata is a robot and just evaluates -mdy(1,3,2012)- as a pure
number, which is then treated as a subscript or observation number.
Again, that is what you said as far as it is concerned.

On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 1:47 PM, annoporci <[email protected]> wrote:
you write faster than I think Nick!

[...] I need to be
able to specify the date in a "human readable" way, so I tried:


scalar newscalar = open[mdy(1,3,2012)]


It doesn't work.
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