Re: st: bysort, forvalues and _N

[Constantin Alba <constantin.alba@gmail.com>]

thanks Nick,

that is what i was looking for exactly. and the data actually was like
that (start/end date) originally. so i just used the trick on it. the
results are correct.

I did understand how this trick worked in the example after the link,
but in current example i am missing it. can you, please, explain the
use of "bysort obsno" here?

thanks

C.

On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 10:10 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
> I wouldn't approach it like that. I don't think a loop is required,
> but rather a different data structure. Also, holding Duration may be
> interesting and useful, but it is just awkward for this problem.
>
> First save the dataset if not already -save-d. Then
>
> gen long obsno = _n
> gen endDate = startDate + Duration
> expand  2
> bysort obsno : gen Date = cond(_n == 1, startDate, endDate)
> bysort obsno : gen inOut = cond(_n == 1, 1, -1)
> bysort PersonID (Date) : gen noActivities = sum(inOut)
>
> Compare e.g. thread starting at
>
> http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2012-11/msg01163.html
>
> Nick
>
> On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 7:38 PM, Constantin Alba
> <constantin.alba@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I have a dataset organized by personID, for each personID there are
>> startDate and Duration for various activities.
>>
>> I want to find out how many activities a person performs at the same
>> time (e.g. something like workload)
>>
>> logically i see it like this:
>>
>> sort personID startDate Duration
>>
>> by personID: forvalues i=1/`=_N' {
>>                                    "compare current date with all
>> other prior dates+duration
>>                                        and update counter accordingly"
>>                                       }
>>
>> however, by and forvalues do not work together, so i am trying to find
>> an alternative way to do so.
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