st: RE: RE: Weights vs subscripts

["Fan, Shihe" <ShiheFan@cha.ab.ca>]

Thanks for your and others' reply. Being a new user, it is always good
to learn the subtle details of the program. Now suppose that I have a
vector variable, and want to replace the value of some elements based on
certain conditions, how should the command be given. Say:

X[5] = 5 if y == z

Thank you

Shihe
  

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
[mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Nick Cox
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 3:35 AM
To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Subject: st: RE: Weights vs subscripts

You pretty well answered your own question. 

Stata permits weights in some commands, although not in -replace-. 

Or rather Stata permits subscripts in -replace-, by virtue of their
being part of an expression, appearing to the RHS of an = sign. In an
example like 

. gen d = c

. replace d[1] = 1
weights not allowed
r(101);

Stata's reasoning is, or is equivalent to, 

(a) "replace d" I understand. 

(b) but what is that "[1]"? 

(c) it is to the left of the = sign, so it is _not_ part of the
expression 

(d) so the user must intend it as some specification of weights

(e) but weights are not allowed in -replace-. 

There remains the question of what you are trying to do. I think Alex
and Michael misread your question, as your code is looping over a
varlist. 

foreach i of varlist x {
	replace y=y[`i'-1]+ z[`i']
}

As the varlist contains a single variable, the loop is redundant here,
so this boils down to 

replace y = y[x - 1] + z[x] 

The implication is that x contains
observation numbers, in effect pointers. Is that right? 
It is a way of getting some subtle effects, or you might be confused. 

Nick
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk 

Michael Blasnik
-------------------------------
Actually, the better (faster) way to do this is 

replace y=y[`i'-1] +z[`i'] in `i'
-------------------------------

Alex Ogan
-------------------------------
Somebody more knowledgeable will probably explain exactly why you can't
use subscripts on the left side like that.

But I can suggest a workaround:

replace y=y[`i'-1] +z[`i'] if _n==`i'
------------------------------


Shihe Fan
------------------------------
Could any one explain to me why it is OK to write the code in the
following way
 
gen y=0
 
foreach i of varlist x {
	replace y=y[`i'-1]+ z[`i']
}
 
but not OK in this way

replace y[`i']=y[`i'-1] +z[`i']
 
the program always treat the [`i'] on the left side as weights, instead
of subscripts
------------------------------

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