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Re: st: Two Mata questions


From   "U.A.QU.AP" <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: Two Mata questions
Date   Thu, 30 Mar 2006 21:03:23 +0100 (CET)

Many thanks to Bill Gould (who write my name correctly)for the
detailed answer
I dont't understand all what you said but I'm able to code
your solution using pointer. at mid April I will compare my
actual result with those of Structures
AbdelRahmen 


---- Original message ---- 
>Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 09:35:07 -0600
>From: [email protected] (William Gould, Stata)  
>Subject: Re: st: Two Mata questions  
>To: [email protected]
>
>AbdelRahmen El Lahga <[email protected]> asks, 
>
>> I have 2 questions about matrix manipulation on my
unbalanced panel data
>> sets:  with my old Stata matrix language I can create a
sequence of matrix
>> by typing for exemple
>>
>>       local wave=1
>>       while `wave'<22 {
>>               matrix accum A`wave' = x1 x2 ..xk if
t==`wave', noconstant
>>               local wave=`wave' +1
>>       }
>>
>>  How can i perform a similar task with Mata?  I don't seek
for a complex way
>>  to things but in fact i would like to write a more complex
expression wich
>>  looks like:
>>
>>       for each time period t the matrix
>>            A_{t} = sum_{i=1 to n} (s1_it * s2_it  x_it' * x_it)
>>
>>   where , s1_it is a scalar =norm(xb) and s2_it=
normden(xb) scalars s1_it
>>   and s2_it comes froma previeous probit estimation any help?
>
>Okay, hold on to your hat.  This is not difficult, but we are
going to use 
>some features with compter-scienced technical terms and you
might confuse 
>the jargon with inherent difficulty.
>
>First off, in Mata, you cannot code things like A`wave'. 
A`wave' is a macro
>trick, and the value of the macro is substituted at execution
time.  Mata is
>compiled before execution -- that's what makes Mata fast --
but the side
>effect is that compilation prevents trickery like A`wave'.
>
>What AbdelRahmen (am I using the name correctly?) wants is an
array of
>matrices.  In the next free executable update of Stata
scheduled for mid
>April, there is a new Mata feature called structures.  They
are exactly what
>AbdelRahmen needs.  If he can wait, the solution is
>
>
>        struct amatrix {
>                real matrix X
>        }
>
>        function ...() 
>        {
>                struct amatrix vector   A
>
>                ...
>                A = amatrix(20)             // <- make 20 of them
>                ...
>
>                ... A[1].X ... A[2].X ...   // <- how to
refer to them
>
>                ...
>
>                for (i=1; i<=20; i++) { 
>                      SUM = SUM + A[i].X       // <- example
of use
>                }
>                ...
>         }
>
>So that's the midapril answer.  Structures can do a lot more
than solve 
>this problem, and I'll be talking about them later.
>
>The answer for today is POINTERS.
>
>A pointer is a memory address value, and said memory address
is the 
>address of some other Mata object, such as a real matrix.
>
>A pointer might be the value 501,128.  The implication is
that, at memory 
>address 501,128 is a Mata matrix.
>
>Programmers don't usually write memory addresses in decimal,
>although they could.  Rather than write 501,128, they write
0x7a588, which is
>the same number in base 16.
>
>Now, when you use pointers, you don't make up address willy
nilly.  
>Instead, you get addresses and you store them.  If I coded
>
>          function ...(...)
>          {
>                  real matrix     A
>                  pointer vector  p
>
>                  p = J(1, 20, NULL)
>                  for (i=1; i<=20; i++) {
>                          p[i] = &A
>                  }
>                  ...
>          }
>
>I would create a 20-element vector, each element of which is
the address 
>of matrix A.  The first assignment line, 
>
>                 p = J(1, 20, NULL)
>
>created a 1x20 vector, each element of which is the special
pointer value 
>0x0, zero, or in progammer jargon, NULL.  0x0 (NULL) points
to nothing.
>Then, in 
>
>                  for (i=1; i<=20; i++) {
>                          p[i] = &A
>                  }
>
>I swept over the vector and filled in each element with the
adress of A.
>& in this case does not mean "and", it means means "address
of".  
>& always means "address of" when you use it as a prefix
operator instead of 
>between two expressions, when it means "and".
>
>Going along with prefix operator & is prefix operator *. 
*p[1] means 
>"the contents of p[1]" or "what p[1] points to".  What p[1]
points to 
>is A.  
>
>Typing *p[1] or typing A refer to the same entity.  Change
the [1,1] element 
>of *p[1], 
>
>                  (*p[1])[1,1] = 5
>
>and you will discover that A[1,1] is now 5.  And vice versa.
>
>Think of the * prefix operator as being analogous to
single-quote macro
>substitution.  Think of the & prefix operawtor as being
analogous to 
>macro definition.
>
>Now, in this case, I made each and every element of p[i]
point to the same
>matrix.  That can be useful in some cases, but that is not
what AbdelRahmen El
>needs.
>
>Abdel wants to make 20 different matrices and then do some
sort of for-loop
>calculation across them.  Here's how:
>
>        1.  Create a subroutine that returns the value of one
of the 
>            created matrices.  Call it repeatedly to obtain the 
>            20 matrices.
>
>        2.  Store the addresses of the matrices returned by
the subroutine.
>
>        3.  Then use the matrcies returned.
>
>For example, says that mysub(i) calculates and returns the
i-th matrix:
>
>         real matrix mysub(real scalar i)
>         { 
>                 ...
>                 return(A)
>         }
>
>Then in the calling routine, we do the following, 
>
>         function ...(...)
>         {
>                 pointer vector   p
>
>                 p = J(1, 20, NULL)
>
>                 for (i=1; i<=20; i++) {
>                         p[i] = &mysub(i)
>                 }
>
>                 ...
>
>                 for (i=1; i<=20; i++) {
>                         SUM = SUM + *p[i]
>                 }
>
>                 ...
>           }
>
>Note the line 
>
>                         p[i] = &mysub(i)
>
>Rather than saving the matrix returned by mysub(), I saved
its address, 
>and I stacked the different addresses, one after another, in
the pointer 
>vector p[].
>
>-- Bill
>[email protected]
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