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RE: st: RE: list in stata8


From   "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   RE: st: RE: list in stata8
Date   Tue, 25 Feb 2003 14:47:40 -0000

Frederick Wolfe 

> I have to say that I find list8 a problem. 
> With a large data set and many variables, 
> I have to use -list, noc-. If I do -list, 
> noc table clean- or table, I get an unreadable 
> list on the screen. When there are a few 
> variables, it's quite a nice display.

> What would be nice is to have the old list 
> back as well as having the new list. The new 
> list breaks a series of older programs that 
> used the old list. And typing version 7 doesn't help.

Some things are becoming clearer in this thread. 

1. Speed is an issue for some people. 
Understood. 

2. The style of presentation is an issue to 
some people. The very option name -clean- 
implies that the default output is, in one 
sense, not -clean-. 

3. Breaking existing programs is evidently 
another issue, if you wrote one dependent 
on the old -list-. 

4. The fact you can't turn the clock back 
under version control is an  issue. 
If you could, none of 1-3 would bite. 
You could put "version 7: list `0'" 
in a wrapper and be happy. 

But I am still puzzled -- and this is 
curiosity, not criticism in disguise. 

-list- for me is the ideal when I want 
to look at (usually some of) the data, 
and there isn't too much of it. I don't want to scan 
hundreds of observations or lots of variables. 
It is tedious, and I am not very good at it. 

Or -- I thought there shouldn't be many 
instances of something, and it turns out 
there are lots: surprise, but -break- out 
of the -list- straight away. 

If I want to look at the data, and I need
for some reason to look at lots, -edit- 
is much more flexible. 

If I want to find something, or whether something 
exists, Stata is better and quicker at that than my eyes 
are, so I work out the command language 
needed. 

So, what are these long (or wide) -list-s being used 
for? (I repeat: curiosity, not criticism.) 

Nick 
[email protected] 
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