Re: st: Re: destringing

[Suzy <scott_788@wowway.com>]

Hi Daniel,
I have looked at the UCLA website - it's very good and I've used it 
before. I'll go through it again on this topic. Thanks too for the other 
tips.  I think it's true that most of the learning happens through trial 
and error and then some handholding by others who have been there. I 
appreciate your time and insight on this topic.
Suzy

Daniel Egan wrote:


> Hi Suzy,
> A couple of points:
> 1) instead of
> tab dxcode1 if dxcode1==V3000
> use
> tab dxcode1 if dxcode1=="V3000"
>
> this tells stata that what it is tabulating is a string variable. This is
> true for all of your string variables, i.e. any one that was read in as
> "strX".
>
> 2) I would highly suggest taking about 1 hour to go through the relevant
> modules at http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/modules/default.htm . This
> will give you a very useful overview of Stata datatypes, and how to
> manipulate them as well as do various things
>
> 3) I would also strongly suggest that when doing analyses, you have your
> "raw" dataset (i.e. what you -infiled- and saved), which is NEVER saved
> over. Doing a "save-as" on the datasets once you have put them in analytic
> format, like "Foo-A.dta". This prevents the over writing, and ties in with
> my next point.
>
> 4) Look into using .do files for all of this - it allows you to 1) keep
> track of what you have done, and look through your code quickly for problems
> fix them, and rerun what you have done on the "raw" dataset, and 2) gives a
> very easy replication file for anyone who is looking to proof your work.
>
> 5) Once comfortable with it, look into using -encode-.
>
> All things which I learned painfully on my own....
>
> Dan
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>
>  

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