----- Original Message -----
From: "West Addison" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 6:31 PM
Subject: st: Invalid syntax in -xtdes- command
> I have a panel data set and attempted to run the xtdes
> command on it in Stata version 7 for Windows. The
> command started to run okay and produced the first few
> lines of output but then failed with the error message
> "invalid syntax r(198);". My syntax looks fine as far
> as I can tell from the manual--I am just typing
> "xtdes" with no options--by I am new to this command
> and may be missing something. Is there a bug in
> xtdes? Here is what my log looks like:
>
> . use E:\Projects\HAP\DataSets\analysis.dta
>
> . tsset id_number time_from_intake
> panel variable: id_number, 394 to 1412
> time variable: time_from_intake, -24 to 12,
> but with gaps
>
> . xtdes
>
> id_number: 394, 399, ..., 1412
> n = 288
> time_from_intake: -24, -23, ..., 12
> T = 37
> Delta(time_from_intake) = 1; (12--24)+1 =
> 37
> (id_number*time_from_intake uniquely
> identifies each observation)
>
> Distribution of T_i: min 5% 25% 50%
> 75% 95% max
> 1 1 1 3
> 5 14 29
> invalid syntax
> r(198);
>
> .
The problem is that you have negative time values. If you -set trace on- and
then run -xtdes- you will see that it chokes when tries to create a new variable
named _T`time value', but _T-24 is not a valid name.
