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Re: st: copying contents form existing to new variable
From
Patricia Biedermann <[email protected]>
To
[email protected]
Subject
Re: st: copying contents form existing to new variable
Date
Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:49:51 +0200
Thanks. Problem solved.
On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 4:07 PM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
> So, as said, the two variables are numerically identical, but one has
> a value label and the other doesn't.
>
> The -list- clinches. (No differences between the variables means
> nothing to show.)
>
> Hence Stata is not changing anything, but you are seeing labels when
> you -list-, by default.
>
> The problem is yours to solve, and was not created by Stata. One
> variable is labelled, but from the evidence that set of labels looks
> strange.
>
> . label li stooltested
>
> to see what has been done to your data. (No; I don't want to see your
> categories, thanks.)
>
> Nick
> [email protected]
>
>
> On 24 April 2013 14:59, Patricia Biedermann <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Thanks Nick for the quick reply.
>>
>> I imported the data from an excel file; some of them where imported as
>> string variables and the labels came with importing too.
>>
>>
>>
>> No, - NumberExamined- doesn't have value label
>>
>> . describe total NumberExamined
>>
>> storage display value
>> variable name type format label variable label
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> total long %8.0g stooltested number of stool tested
>> NumberExamined double %10.0g
>>
>>
>> When I did the -list var1 var2 if var1 != var2- command it didn't show
>> me any results....
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 3:46 PM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Your variables are, it may be guessed, numerically identical. See the
>>> results of -summarize-.
>>>
>>> -total- has a value label, but -NumberExamined- seemingly doesn't.
>>> (You don't show -describe- for that.)
>>>
>>> You didn't show any results for -list var1 var2 if var1 != var2- which
>>> ignores the labels.
>>>
>>> Why do you need a value label for what looks numeric? Why was the
>>> original a string variable any way? Perhaps there were problems with
>>> stray characters.
>>>
>>> Nick
>>> [email protected]
>>>
>>>
>>> On 24 April 2013 14:38, Patricia Biedermann <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Hello Nick,
>>>>
>>>> I used the -clonevar- command. The contents remained the same, but if
>>>> I do a simple calculation (cross multiplication) with var2 then the
>>>> results are wrong
>>>>
>>>> Here are some results of the approach I used before:
>>>> NumberExamined should be the copy of total
>>>>
>>>> list total NumberExamined
>>>>
>>>> total NumberExamined
>>>> 1. 51 38
>>>> 2. 18 10
>>>> 3. 20 12
>>>> 4. 19 11
>>>> 5. 55 41
>>>> etc
>>>>
>>>> describe total NumberExamined
>>>>
>>>> storage display value variable
>>>> variablename type format label label
>>>>
>>>> total long %8.0g stool stooltest
>>>>
>>>> su total NumberExamined
>>>>
>>>> Variable Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
>>>>
>>>> total 25 21.56 13.2164
>>>> 1 45
>>>> NumberExamined 25 21.56 13.2164 1 45
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 11:20 AM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> This could be as simple as your new variable not inheriting the value
>>>>> labels of the -encode-d variable. (Have a look at -clonevar-.)
>>>>>
>>>>> Otherwise, we need more evidence. What you do mean by the contents
>>>>> changing? Show us the results of
>>>>>
>>>>> . describe var1 var2
>>>>> . su var1 var2
>>>>> . list var1 var2 if var1 != var2 [example at least]
>>>>>
>>>>> Nick
>>>>> [email protected]
>>>>>
>>>>> On 24 April 2013 10:10, Patricia Biedermann <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> If I generate a new variable from an existing variable it happens that
>>>>>> the contents get changed.
>>>>>> gen var2=var1
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My approach is following:
>>>>>> 1) My original variable is string and I - encode - it: var1
>>>>>> 2) gen var2=var1
>>>>>>
>>>>>> At step 2) the contents changes.
>>>>>> I came along this Thread:
>>>>>> http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2012-05/msg01280.html
>>>>>> ..and tried to create a double variable first before copying the
>>>>>> variables. Anyway, the same problem appears again.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What could be the problem? It did this thing (gen var2=var1) many
>>>>>> times and it always worked so far...
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