Thank you Bill for explanation. Your revised code made our "real" code much
nicer. From our side there is no need to fix the bug in a hurry ...
Uli
William Gould, Stata wrote:
> Uli and Magdalena Luniak <[email protected]> asked about structures
> in Mata.
>
> They ran into a bug. Had they coded a little more efficiently, they never
> would have run into it, but that does not excuse the bug.
>
> Where's what they did: They had a vector of structures: v[1] was the
> first struct, v[2] was the second. The filled in a third structure,
> mypoint, and then stored mypoint in v[1]:
>
> v[1] = mypoint.
>
> All went well. The then filled in mypoint with a different set of values,
> and coded
>
> v[2] = mypoint.
>
> That worked well, too, except that v[1] also changed, and it changed to be
> the same as v[2], namely, mypoint!
>
> Uli and Magdalena made no errors; Mata did. Rather than storing a copy of
> mypoint in v[1], and then later, a copy of mypoint in v[2], Mata mistakenly
> stored mypoint itself in v[1] and v[2]. v[1], v[2], and mypoint all became
> the same object.
>
> I have just examined this bug in detail. It occurs when the RHS is a
> structure and the LHS is an element of a structure vector or matrix, i.e.,
> statements of the form,
>
> v[i] = mypoint
>
> v[i,j] = mypoint
>
> It does *NOT* occur when the LHS is a scalar,
>
> v = mypoint
>
> Until the bug is fixed, the workaround is to make the copy that Mata forgot
> to make:
>
> Rather than code
> v[i] = mypoint
> code
> v[i] = copyof(mypoint)
>
> and rather than code
> v[i,j] = mypoint
> code
> v[i,j] = copyof(mypoint)
>
>
> where function copyof() is coded
>
> transmorphic copyof(transmorphic original)
> {
> transmorphic copy
>
> copy = original
> return(copy)
> }
>
> In Uli's and Magdalena's case, they have a second alternative. They can
> make their code more efficient and not provoke the bug. Their original
> code reads,
>
> struct point vector function help(real vector seq)
> {
> real scalar length
> length = length(seq)
> struct point vector v
> v = point(length)
> real scalar i
> struct point scalar mypoint
> for (i=1; i<=length; i++) {
> mypoint.a=seq[i]
> mypoint.b=seq[i]
> v[i] = mypoint
> }
> return(v)
> }
>
> I prefer all the declarations up top. It is just a matter of style, and
> not even good style vs. bad style, but indulge me, and let me change their
> code to my preferred style before getting to my point:
>
> struct point vector function help(real vector seq)
> {
> real scalar i
> real scalar length
> struct point vector v
> struct point scalar mypoint
>
> length = length(seq)
> v = point(length)
> for (i=1; i<=length; i++) {
> mypoint.a=seq[i]
> mypoint.b=seq[i]
> v[i] = mypoint
> }
> return(v)
> }
>
> Style aside, a more efficient version of thier code reads,
>
> struct point vector function help(real vector seq)
> {
> real scalar i
> real scalar length
> struct point vector v
>
> length = length(seq)
> v = point(length)
> for (i=1; i<=length; i++) {
> v[i].a = seq[i]
> v[i].b = seq[i]
> }
> return(v)
> }
>
> Did you know you could do that? Refer to v[i].a and v[i].b? On the
> left or on the right?
>
> Pretend v[i] had a third element, a vector c. Then you could refer to
> v[i].c[j] and v[j].c[i] (which would be different things).
>
> I know, I'm changing the subject. We will fix the bug, but it will not be
> in the next executable update. It will be in the one after that.
>
> -- Bill
> [email protected]
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
> * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
--
[email protected]
+49 (030) 25491-361
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
