st: Re: Re: replacing a scalar from mat

["R.E. De Hoyos" <redeho@hotmail.com>]

Michael,

Thanks for your answer.

Your suggestion works fine. However I still face the row and column name 
problem when I try to replace a the scalar (or 1x1 matrix) into another 
vector. I should've explained myself better. The problem is the following. 
Consider:

reg z1 x1 x2
mat A=e(b)

reg z2 x1 x2
mat B=e(b)

I want to know how much of the difference between z1 and z2 is explained by 
the difference in parameter x2 (a similar exercise like the Oaxaca 
decomposition). Therefore I get the parameter of x2 from mat A:

mat X2 = A["y1","x2"]

The second step is to replace this scalar (or 1x1 matrix) into mat B. To do 
so, I have to let Stata know the name of the variable--column--in mat B that 
has to be replaced with mat X2. My first though would be:

mat B["y1","x2"] = X2["y1","x2"]

However this syntax is not valid. The second thing I tried--following your 
advice--was to create a scalar from X2:

scalar x2 = X2[1,1]

Again I tried to replace mat B with scalar x2:
mat B["y1","x2"] = x2

And it didn't work either. To replace an element of a matrix you have to use 
numbers of rows and columns a not the names of them (mat B[1,2] = x2 works 
fine). Perhaps there is a strong reason for that but I cannot see it. In any 
case the problem was solved by assigning a number to each element of the 
independent variables:

local indv x1 x2
local i=1
foreach k in `indv' {
   local `k' = `i'
   local i=`i'+1
}
mat X`x1' = A[1,`x1']
mat B[1,`x1'] = X`x1'

I still wonder why Stata does not accept rows and columns names?

Best regards,

Rafa


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Blasnik" <michael.blasnik@verizon.net>
To: <statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 9:33 PM
Subject: st: Re: replacing a scalar from mat



> If you know that you are only extract one row and column, why not
> mat B = e(b)
> mat B1 = B["y1","eq1:x1"]
> scalar s=B1[1,1]
>
> Michael Blasnik
> michael.blasnik@verizon.net
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "R.E. De Hoyos" <redeho@hotmail.com>
> To: <statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 12:48 PM
> Subject: st: replacing a scalar from mat
>
>
>
> > I am trying to get a scalar from a matrix (vector). Within a multiple 
> > equations framework (-mlogit-) I want to get one of the parameters 
> > estimated. After running -mlogit- I tried the following:
> >
> > mat B = e(b)
> > scalar s = B["y1","eq1:x1"]
> >
> > The following error appears:
> >
> > matrix operators that return matrices not allowed in this context
> > r(509);
> >
> > However if I try one of the following, there is no error reported:
> >
> > mat A = B["y1","eq1:x1"]
> > scalar s = B[1,1]
> >
> > Using the rows and columns names of the matrix is important since these 
> > scalars will be replaced into a second vector of estimated parameters.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Rafa
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