st: New package -bygap- on SSC (and updated -sencode-)

[Roger Newson <roger.newson@kcl.ac.uk>]

Dear All

Thanks to Kit Baum, there is now a new package -bygap- on SSC, and a new 
version of the existing -sencode- package. In Stata, type -ssc desc bygap- 
or -ssc desc sencode- to find out more.

The -bygap- package inserts a by-gap observation at the start of each 
by-group defined by a list of by-variables, or at the start of the data set 
if no by-variables are specified. The by-gap observation for each by-group 
has the same by-variable values as the by-group, and all other variables 
are set to missing values. (The user can replace these missing values with 
other values  afterwards.) Optionally, -bygap- generates an indicator 
variable, indicating which observations are by-gap observations. -bygap- is 
useful for preparing a data set to be plotted using -graph- or the 
-eclplot- package (downloadable from SSC) together with the -sencode- 
package (downloadable from SSC), or to be output to a Microsoft Word, TeX, 
LaTeX or HTML table using the -listtex- package (downloadable from SSC). It 
is also possible to use -bygap- together with -listtex- and the -tostring- 
package (written by Nick Cox and Jeremy Wernow and also downloadable from 
SSC) to create tables with top lines containing column titles.

-sencode- is a sequential version of -encode-, and encodes a string 
variable to a new numeric variable in a sequential or other user-specified 
non-alphanumeric order. The new version should work as the old one, but the 
code has been made more efficient in response to some very helpful 
suggestions from Nick Cox, which have reduced file handling to a minimum. 
(Thanks, Nick!)

Best wishes

Roger

--
Roger Newson
Lecturer in Medical Statistics
Department of Public Health Sciences
King's College London
5th Floor, Capital House
42 Weston Street
London SE1 3QD
United Kingdom

Tel: 020 7848 6648 International +44 20 7848 6648
Fax: 020 7848 6620 International +44 20 7848 6620
  or 020 7848 6605 International +44 20 7848 6605
Email: roger.newson@kcl.ac.uk

Opinions expressed are those of the author, not the institution.

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