st: question: how do i...

["israel solaresbravo" <israelsolaresbravo@hotmail.com>]

dear all,

i have the following problem:

i want to construct a variable called margin of victory:

my data set looks something like this:


state	votesA	votesB	votesC	votesD
1	10	1	6	21
2	11	2	7	22
3	12	3	8	13
4	1	4	2	3
5	2	5	3	7


my question is:

how do i create a variable called margin_of_victory = votes for 1st place - 
votes for 2nd place?, i.e. 21-10 for state 1, 22 - 11 for state 2, 13 - 12 
for state 3, 4 - 3 for state 4, etc.

i can't do this by hand, since i have a huge data set.

i know that the command

. egen margin_of_victory = rmax (votesforA votesforB votesforC votesforD)


will help me pick the biggest number in each row, but how do i get to choose 
the 2nd biggest number?

thanks many, and sorry if this is a silly question.

thanks many.

ISB

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