Keith,
Thank you for the clarification. This is exactly what I needed. So, if
I had declared
gen long date_cohort=.
instead of
gen date_cohort=.
when I set up the log file, all would have been fine. Perfect.
Thanks again,
Gabi
On 4/23/08, Keith Dear <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Gabi,
> Macros are strings, neither float nor integer. Your macro $t contains
> "20080421" (without the quotes of course). You need to be careful about the
> datatype of the variable to which you assign a macro value, not the macro
> itself. If you make date_cohort a "long" it will hold numbers like 20080421
> exactly.
> HTH
> kd
>
>
> At 02:13 AM 24/04/2008, you wrote:
>
> > Got it, thank you.
> >
> > Do you know if there is any way to get macros to recognize large
> > integers as such and respond by storing them as long instead of float?
> >
> > For this particular project I just replaced date_cohort with a Stata
> > date formated as %d. It's even easier on the human eye than the
> > YYYYMMDD format and it sorts properly.
> >
> > Gabi
> >
> > On 4/23/08, Austin Nichols <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > . di 20080421
> > > 20080421
> > >
> > > . di float(20080421)
> > > 20080420
> > >
> > > See
> > > help data_types
> > > and note that if date_cohort were double or long you would face no
> > > precision problem.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 11:09 AM, Gabi Huiber <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> > > > I am having some trouble getting global macros to represent numbers
> properly.
> > > >
> > > > Every week I receive some csv files that are named things like
> file_20080331.csv
> > > >
> > > > I use these files in a series of do-files that reference them as
> > > > file_${t}.csv, and all is well.
> > > >
> > > > However, when at the very end I produce a rolling summary report file
> > > > where I want to record the date in the same format, I am getting a
> > > > surprise result. I am doing this:
> > > >
> > > > [...]
> > > > local lastline=${cycles}+1
> > > > set obs `lastline'
> > > > replace date_cohort=${t} in `lastline'
> > > > [...]
> > > >
> > > > Yet the date_cohort observation corresponding to ${t}=20080331 is
> > > > 20080332; and the one that corresponds to ${t}=20080421 is 20080420.
> > > >
> > > > It's strange, because if ${t} were anything but 20080421, my do-files
> > > > would produce a "file not found" error when trying to look for that
> > > > day's csv file. So I am sure that ${t} stores the correct value. What
> > > > I am not sure of is why it is rendering it with a day off in either
> > > > direction.
> > > >
> > > > Can anybody help?
> > > >
> > > > Thank you,
> > > >
> > > > Gabi
> > > > *
> > > *
> > > * 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/
> > >
> > *
> > * 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/
> >
>
>
> Dr Keith B.G. Dear
> Senior Fellow in Biostatistics
> National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health
> Australian National University
> Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
> Tel: 02 612 54865, Fax: 02 612 50740
> http://nceph.anu.edu.au/Staff_Students/staff_pages/dear.php
> CRICOS provider #00120C
>
> http://canberragliding.org/
>
>
> *
> * 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/
>
*
* 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/
