re: st: Errors "out of range" for a simple Mata function

[Christopher Baum <kit.baum@bc.edu>]

<>
Ly Tran:

Nick Cox is correct in pointing out that you need to pass `generate' to your Mata function. But it is not necessary to use st_store() as he suggests. Your Mata code works with one small change:

capture program drop testsum
program testsum, rclass
syntax varlist(numeric) [if] [in], GENerate(string) [FLOAT]
qui generate `float' `generate' = .
mata: tsum( "`varlist'", "`generate'")
end

mata
void function tsum (string scalar varlist, string scalar newvar)
{
real matrix X, Z
st_view(X = .,., tokens(varlist))
st_view(Z =., ., newvar)
Z[.,.] = rowsum(X)
}
end

When an entire view matrix is the LHS of a statement, you must use the syntax shown, rather than the name of the view matrix, for the statement to update the view matrix (and the Stata variable(s)) and not create a new Mata object. In the help for st_view(), read the section "Cautions when using views 2:  Assignment" to see this point illustrated. It is also mentioned in the Mata chapter of ITSP below.

. sysuse auto,clear
(1978 Automobile Data)

. testsum price mpg turn, gen(junk)

. egen junk2=rowtotal(price mpg turn)

. su junk*

    Variable |       Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+--------------------------------------------------------
        junk |        74    6226.203    2948.149       3354      15972
       junk2 |        74    6226.203    2948.149       3354      15972


One other thing: if you allow [if] and [in] in your ado-file, you should -marksample touse- and pass `touse' to Mata so that it can limit the observations being used in the Mata routine. Again, example code in ITSP.

Kit

Kit Baum   |   Boston College Economics & DIW Berlin   |   http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba1.html
                             An Introduction to Stata Programming  |   http://www.stata-press.com/books/isp.html
  An Introduction to Modern Econometrics Using Stata  |   http://www.stata-press.com/books/imeus.html


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