st: summ, format

["SJ Friederich, Economics" <S.Friederich@bristol.ac.uk>]

Dear all,

A simple question in principle about the -format- option of -summarize-: 
from the online help, "format requests that the summary statistics be 
displayed using the display format associated with the variables rather 
than the default g display format."

Yet:

. g int edate = mdy(m,d,1900+y)

. l edate in 1

    +-------+
    | edate |
    |-------|
 1. | 13163 |
    +-------+

. format edate %d

. l edate in 1

    +-----------+
    |     edate |
    |-----------|
 1. | 15jan1996 |
    +-----------+


. sum edate

   Variable |       Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+--------------------------------------------------------
      edate |   5243770    13243.04    48.59888      13163      13328


. sum edate, format

   Variable |       Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+--------------------------------------------------------
      edate |   5243770    13243.04    48.59888      13163      13328


The output is exactly the same. Does the option not work, or I am 
misunderstanding how it operates?

Thanks for any insights.

Sylvain

----------------------
Sylvain Friederich
Department of Economics, University of Bristol
8 Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1TN
Tel +44(0)117 928-8425
Fax +44(0)117 928-8577


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