Christopher F Baum
> NaN is geekspeak for Not a Number. See
>
> http://www.psc.edu/general/software/packages/ieee/ieee.html
>
> IMHO Stata does NOT make use of NaNs, which have the
> properties that
> missing values should have (i.e. any op involving a NaN
> evaluates to a NaN). If I say
>
> use auto
> g byte badrep = (rep78>3)
>
> I get 5 obs of badrep=1 corresponding to rep78==. whereas
> in true NaN
> arithmetic they would be discarded as having no defined
> value.
The example is convincing, but note that we have
some smart behaviour elsewhere in Stata. Thus
di max(1,2.71828,3.14159,.)
yields 3.14159. The result of -max()- is missing if and
only if all its arguments are missing. I'd say that
was right, at least in the important sense that
is what is usually desired.
Now substitute NaN for missing. What should the
answer be?
Nick
[email protected]
*
* 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/
