Let's keep two issues distinct:
1. variable -foo-, scalar -foo- both exist:
. di foo
goes for the variable. Well, that's history
and politics, I guess. Variables came first in
Stata's history; variables
get "more votes" than scalars from users.
The original question was within a program,
but the rule has to be the same interactively
as well.
2. If -foo- is a variable, then
. di foo
is equivalent to
. di foo[1]
The reaction against 2 stems -- at least partly -- from the
feeling that Stata shouldn't do what the user doesn't
really want it to do, i.e. that no user would really
attempt to display a whole variable in this way.
But consider two details then arising:
* The parser goes on what is legal, not what is
sensible or meaningful. It is very difficult to
design a language making it impossible for the
user never to say things that are not sensible,
not least because what is sensible can be very
difficult to pin down.
* It is perfectly legal to have a variable with just
one observation, in which case -di foo- is totally
sensible. Not common, sure; but perfectly legal.
These two comments are at most part of the story;
no doubt more can be said.
Nick
[email protected]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of
> Edwin Leuven
> Sent: 05 November 2003 16:11
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: st: RE: scalar troubles?
>
>
> > (This applies not just to -display-, but to any context
> that refers to a
> > single value, rather than the whole dataset's set of values.)
> >
> > I also find it odd, and have never found it useful. Does
> anyone find it
> > useful? I would not have designed it that way, and have
> always found it
> > to be a potential source of error rather than a convenience.
>
> default behavior which uses the scalar seems more logical
> indeed, but
> perhaps the current default is well argued (although i
> can't see how)
>
> edwin
>
> *
> * 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/
*
* 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/
