Re: st: I can't get List to work

[Robert Picard <picard@netbox.com>]

It's also possible to use labels in expressions. For example, if the
-id2- value label associates the label "1131-172" with the numeric
value 840, then

list year satisfaction d_satisfaction id if id == "1131-172":id2

is equivalent to

list year satisfaction d_satisfaction id if id == 840

See section 13.10 in http://www.stata.com/manuals13/u13.pdf

Robert

On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 12:45 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
> -list- is working fine. But you are confusing numbers and strings.
>
> What you are thinking of as an "identification number", something like
> 1131-172, cannot be held by a Stata as a number, as the punctuation
> "-" is not part of a number (only digits 0 ... 9, a minus sign, and a
> decimal point are allowed).
>
> It can only be held as a string, meaning here as either (a) a value in
> a string variable or (b) a value label attached to a numeric variable.
>
> The key here is that by default you see value labels in -list-
> whenever your variable has value labels attached, as the -describe-
> command tells you it does.
>
> Something you or somebody else did earlier (perhaps an -encode-) means
> that the value
>
> 840
>
> corresponds to the value label
>
> "1131-172"
>
> I say 840 because 846-6 = 840. When not protected by " ", the
> punctuation - is interpreted by Stata as a minus sign, so Stata does
> the subtraction before showing you the results of -list-.
>
> To see what is going on, type
>
> list list year satisfaction d_satisfaction id if id == 840
>
> list list year satisfaction d_satisfaction id if id == 840, nola
>
> to see the data with and without the value labels.
>
> If you want to work with a string identifier, read up on the -decode- command.
>
> (By the way, I'd fix that typo "Completly" before someone spots it in
> your graphs or tables.)
>
> Nick
> njcoxstata@gmail.com
>
>
> On 7 March 2014 17:28, Snapp, Kevin Michael <ksnapp@iupui.edu> wrote:
>> Hello Stata helpers,
>>
>> I have a two panel data set.  I set it up with:
>>  xtset
>>        panel variable:  id (strongly balanced)
>>         time variable:  year, 2009 to 2011
>>                 delta:  2 units
>>
>> I have some outliers, d_satisfactin == -4, I'd like to look at so I get a list of them with:
>> list satisfaction d_satisfaction id if d_satisfaction == -4
>>
>> here is a sample of the list:
>>            | satisfa~n   d_sati~n         id |
>>            |---------------------------------|
>> 19084. | Completly         -4   2860-179 |
>> 19090. | Completly         -4    2860-30 |
>> 26908. | Completly         -4    5154-45 |
>>
>>
>>
>> Then I try to look at one by using the id number with:
>> list year satisfaction d_satisfaction id if id == 846-6
>>
>> I get this:
>>           +---------------------------------+
>>           | satisfa~n   d_sati~n         id |
>>           |---------------------------------|
>>  1397. |      Very          .   1131-172 |
>>  1398. | Completly         -1   1131-172 |
>>        +---------------------------------+
>>
>> That's not the id number i asked for! What gives?
>>
>> here is the description of id:
>> . desc id
>>
>>               storage   display    value
>> variable name   type    format     label      variable label
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> id              long    %8.0g      id2        Unique Individual ID
>>
>> if that helps.
>>
> *
> *   For searches and help try:
> *   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> *   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
> *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/