Re: st: Data manipulation with Mata (was: [Mata] passing a functionto mata (new question))

[James Muller <james.muller@internode.on.net>]

Can we embed blocks of Stata code in a mata function definition? Haven't 
looked, but this would be a way. Might be less visually awkward to do 
this rather than writing little sub-programs to do the external tasks 
elsewhere.

Reminds me of the Linux goal of getting WINE to run Cygwin, and then 
have Cygwin run WINE again. Completely pointless, but for some reason a 
sought-after accomplishment.



Jann Ben wrote:


> Stata has very powerful data manipulation functionality 
> and I think it does not make much sense to mimic Stata 
> commands such as, e.g., -generate- in Mata, because Mata 
> will almost sure be slower. My recomondation is to use Mata 
> only for data manipulation tasks that are hard to implement 
> in terms of standard Stata commands or that are really slow 
> in Stata. For example, manipulation tasks that involve 
> temporarily reshaping the data, can be done more efficiently 
> in Mata. For an example see the code of -supclust- 
> (available form SSC). Type 
> . ssc install supclust
> . viewsource supclust.ado
>
> Maybe StataCorp has a different opinion on this.
>
> ben
>
>
>  
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu 
> > [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Fred Wolfe
> > Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 4:21 PM
> > To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> > Subject: Re: st: [Mata] passing a function to mata (new question)
> >
> >
> > Bill,
> >
> > In reference to your comments below, I have found Mata a 
> > little daunting 
> > with respect to how it might be used for data management and variable 
> > manipulation - non-statistical uses. Is there any thought to 
> > addressing 
> > these uses simply some where? or even having a net course? 
> > Your slides from 
> > the users meeting were helpful, but more of an overview than 
> > an actual 
> > tutorial for the uses I describe. Is it worth it for a data 
> > manipulator 
> > like me to use Mata?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Fred
> >    
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