Re: st: Benford's Law

[Nick Winter <nw53@cornell.edu>]

One option:

gen firstdigit = int( x / 10^int(log10(abs(x))) )

This works for positive and negative numbers.  It generates missing 
for x==0, and it generates 0 for -1<x<1.

--Nick WInter

At 09:23 AM 11/30/2005, you wrote:


> Michael wrote:
> Does anyone have an easy way to identify the leading digit for each
> entry in a diverse data set other than a series of inequality filters?
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> If you convert numbers to strings it is easy to identify the first
> digit, as shown here:
>
> clear
> set obs 100
> gen x = int(1000*uniform())
> gen str10 xstr = string(x , "%6.0f")
> gen strx1 = substr(xstr,1,1)
> destring strx1 , generate(x1)
>
> Hope this helps
> Svend
> __________________________________________
>
> Svend Juul
> Institut for Folkesundhed, Afdeling for Epidemiologi
> (Institute of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology)
> Vennelyst Boulevard 6
> DK-8000  Aarhus C, Denmark
> Phone: +45 8942 6090
> Home:  +45 8693 7796
> Email: sj@soci.au.dk
> __________________________________________
>
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________________________________________________________
Nicholas J. G. Winter                     607.255.8819 t
Assistant Professor                       607.255.4530 f
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