Re: st: r(110) error with -svy-, -mark-, -marksample-

[Stas Kolenikov <skolenik@gmail.com>]

They were dropped automatically, but you could not benefit from it.
Entertain this:

-- tempvar_example.do --

sysuse auto, clear
tempvar one
gen byte `one' = 1
save auto_one, replace
exit

-- end of tempvar_example.do --

At the completion of tempvar_example.do, you won't see any tempvars
(although -describe- would indicate that the file has actually
changed). But the saved version will contain whatever was present at
that spot in time, including the ugly named __000000 or whatever the
available -tempvar- name will be. So -capture drop __00*- may often be
a good idea (you want -capture- just in case that there was no temp
crap left, otherwise -drop- would produce an error).

On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 5:43 PM,  <S.Jenkins@lse.ac.uk> wrote:
> Thank you, Stas!  Your supposition explains the behaviour observed
> (including why it worked ok on 12 July 2012).
>
> There were a load of temporary variables created in the process of
> making my "voldat.dta" data set. But I had simply assumed that they
> would have all disappeared when the data creation do file had
> successfully completed. And they it turns out that they hadn't. They
> weren't in my face as "voldat.dta" is large.
>
> The (non-elegant) code which creates the tempvars is:
>
> quietly {
> forval t = 1/18 {
>  forval f = 0/1   {
>         tempvar temp1
>         tempvar temp2
>         tempvar temp3
>         tempvar temp4
>
>         regress mwage1 A A2 A3 A4 if mwage1 > 0 & !missing(mwage1) &
> wave == `t' & female == `f'
>         predict double `temp1' if e(sample), residuals
>         regress mwage1 A A2 A3 A4 [aw = xrwght] if mwage1 > 0 &
> !missing(mwage1) & wave == `t' & female == `f'
>         predict double `temp2' if e(sample), residuals
>
>         regress mwage2 A A2 A3 A4 if mwage2 > 0 & !missing(mwage2) &
> wave == `t' & female == `f'
>         predict double `temp3' if e(sample), residuals
>         regress mwage2 A A2 A3 A4 [aw = xrwght] if mwage2 > 0 &
> !missing(mwage2) & wave == `t' & female == `f'
>         predict double `temp4' if e(sample), residuals
>
>         replace mwage1res_u = `temp1' if mwage1 > 0 & !missing(mwage1) &
> wave == `t' & female == `f'
>         replace mwage1res_w = `temp2' if mwage1 > 0 & !missing(mwage1) &
> wave == `t' & female == `f'
>         replace mwage2res_u = `temp3' if mwage2 > 0 & !missing(mwage2) &
> wave == `t' & female == `f'
>         replace mwage2res_w = `temp4' if mwage2 > 0 & !missing(mwage2) &
> wave == `t' & female == `f'
>  }
> }
> }
>
> I've now added a -drop __*- line after this section, and the temporary
> variables are no longer retained in "voldat.dta". And the job with the
> call to -idonepsu- now works again.
>
> I remain surprised that the tempvars weren't automatically deleted at
> the end of the data creation job.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
> From   Stas Kolenikov <skolenik@gmail.com>
> To   statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject   Re: st: r(110) error with -svy-, -mark-, -marksample-
> Date   Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:19:23 -0500
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> The most obvious explanation is that you do have that __000003
> variable present in your data set, for some strange reason (the data
> set was saved while -tempvar- was created, but before it was cleaned
> with an exit from a program). Sometimes, I do get something like that
> with a complicated set of nested routines and some complicated
> patterns of who creates and who cleans the -tempvar-s, although I
> would expect that Stata would try to come up with the next available
> -tempvar- name upon having checked that a variable already exists in
> the data set. The conflict like that may also arise if you
> deliberately drop a tempvar rather than let Stata do it. But it would
> be strange if this error were in the official code.
>
> On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 4:59 PM,  <S.Jenkins@lse.ac.uk> wrote:
>> I am unable to run some -svy- related commands using one of my data
>> sets. The puzzle is that I have no problems with similar commands
>> applied to data from the Ref Manuals (cf. example below: uses
>> "stage5a.dta").
>>
>> The issue: after -svyset-,  -svy: ...- commands produce a r(110) error
>>
>> [P]     error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Return
>> code 110
>>         __________ already defined;
>>         A variable or a value label has already been defined, and you
>>         attempted to redefine it.  This occurs most often with
> generate.
>>
>> But I had made no such attempt to redefine, as far as I know. With
> -set
>> trace on-, it seems that the command applied to my data is choking
> when
>> it makes a call to -marksample-. There's an example below: uses
>> "voldat.dta".
>>
>> In another example (not shown), I had been using -idonepsu- (command
> to
>> deal with singleton PSUs; on SSC), and also hit the same error, though
>> this time with a call to -mark- according to a -set trace on-.  [Even
>> more strangely (to me), I have a log file from a job also using
>> -idonepsu and same data set, dated 6 Jul 2012, that ran without
> error.]
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Stata 12MP/4, fully updated. Behaviour observed on Win7/64bit and Win
>> XP/32bit
>> . display "`c(tmpdir)'"
>> C:\DOCUME~1\stephen\LOCALS~1\Temp/
>
>
> <snip>
>
>
> Stephen
> -------------------------------------
> Professor Stephen P. Jenkins <s.jenkins@lse.ac.uk>
> Department of Social Policy
> London School of Economics and Political Science
> Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, U.K.
> Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 6527
> Changing Fortunes: Income Mobility and Poverty Dynamics in Britain, OUP
> 2011, http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199226436.do
> Survival Analysis using Stata:
> http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/survival-analysis
> Downloadable papers and software: http://ideas.repec.org/e/pje7.html
>
> Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://lse.ac.uk/emailDisclaimer
>
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-- 
---- Stas Kolenikov
-- http://stas.kolenikov.name
---- Senior Survey Statistician, Abt SRBI
-- Opinions stated in this email are mine only, and do not reflect the
position of my employer
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