Nick Cox wrote:
> Uli is right. -_pctile- is faster than -summarize, detail-
> to get the median. But, interestingly, not much: a few
> quick experiments indicate ~10% faster. The story,
> presumably, is that most of the work is in the sorting,
> and the fact that -summarize, detail- calculates so much
> more is secondary.
Hm. If I needed the median from data that is not machine readable, I would
only sort until the half is reached, and would leave the upper half unsorted.
If Stata did the same the speed increase could be stronger. However, I guess
Stata is very efficient in sorting. For me, personally, it is always quite a
burden to sort student's examinations alphabetically, for example. It always
requires all desks and even the floor of my tiny little office. Wonder if I
can learn something from how Stata does it.
Uli
--
[email protected]
+49 (030) 25491-361
*
* 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/
