The key point is that the Stata function -min()- requires
a list of arguments and returns the minimum of that list.
Each argument must be a scalar. This is (almost) explicit in the help.
Patrick wants a function that looks inside a variable
and returns the minimum. There is no such function in
Stata. (Mata is a different story, as far as vectors
and matrices are concerned.)
Scott's first solution is one way to do it.
I think his second solution is a bit mangled.
It won't work as posted.
The spirit of his idea I take to be this:
gen int obs = _n
su W, meanonly
su obs if W == r(min), meanonly
scalar alpha_hat = alpha[`r(min)']
The first solution is thus preferable,
in my view, as more direct.
Nick
[email protected]
Scott Merryman
> On 6/10/07, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
> <snip>
> > The code below nearly gets there. From the plot of the Wald
> statistic
> > against alpha, the smallest element of alpha (on this
> coarse grid) is
> > alpha_hat = 29. I could
> >
> > not work out how to use the minimum function to extract
> this value. I tried
> > things like --- scalar alpha_hat = min(alpha) --- but that
> won't work.
> > What's the trick
> <snip>
>
> You could try:
>
> sort W
> scalar alpha_hat = alpha[1]
>
> or
>
> sum W, meanonly
> if W == r(min) {
> scalar alpha_hat = alpha
> }
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