Nick--
I agree with much of what you say, as usual, but it seems to me that
-tabulate- could have an option -label- (much like option -missing-)
that would make sure that every category of a numeric variable that
has a value label defined for it would be included in the table. Then
many of these odd tables could be constructed in 2 or 3 easy steps. I
can envision an easy ado-based solution not using Mata, but using
-label save- and -file read- loops to read off the 4th "word" of the
do-file that results from -label save-. If I have a chance, I'll
write up a quickie version later today...
You could even make a version that makes SAS-like tables, where
categories with the same label are collapsed into the same row or
column, but I doubt I would provide that functionality (call me
paternalistic).
On 5/11/07, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
The problem with tables is analogous to that of
graphs.
In essence tabulation in Stata is a bit of a mess
but then what is the alternative? One enormous command
with numerous bells and whistles and
with a manual entry 150 pages long that will do
all these special things too?
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