Al, there is documentation (help mf_uniform):
help mata uniform()
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title
[M-5] uniform() -- Uniformly distributed random numbers
Syntax
real matrix uniform(real scalar r, real scalar c)
string scalar uniformseed()
void uniformseed(string scalar newseed)
void uniformseed(real scalar newseed)
Description
uniform(r, c) returns an r x c real matrix containing uniformly distributed random
numbers 0 < element < 1. uniform() is the same function as Stata's uniform() function.
uniformseed() returns uniform()'s current seed in encrypted, string form. uniformseed()
returns the same thing as Stata's c(seed); see [D] generate and [P] creturn.
uniformseed(newseed) sets the seed: a string previously obtained from uniformseed() may
be specified for the argument, or an integer number may be specified. uniformseed() has
the same effect as Stata's set seed command; see [D] generate.
Conformability
uniform(r, c):
r: 1 x 1
c: 1 x 1
result: r x c
uniformseed():
result: 1 x 1
uniformseed(newseed):
newseed: 1 x 1
result: void
Diagnostics
uniform(r, c) aborts with error if r<0 or c<0.
uniformseed(seed) aborts with error if a string seed is specified and it is malformed
(was not obtained from uniformseed()).
Source code
Functions are built in.
Also see
Manual: [M-5] uniform()
Online: [M-4] standard, [M-4] statistical
-----------------------------------
Thomas J. Steichen
[email protected]
-----------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Feiveson, Alan H. (JSC-SK311)
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 3:47 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: st: mata (simple): generating random numbers
Hi -I've been frustrated by trying to simply generate random uniforms
using uniform()in Mata: Here's what happens:
.. mata
------------------------------------------------- mata (type end to
exit) ---------------------------
: A = 1..5
: E=exp(A)
: A
1 2 3 4 5
+---------------------+
1 | 1 2 3 4 5 |
+---------------------+
: E
1 2 3 4
5
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
1 | 2.718281828 7.389056099 20.08553692 54.59815003
148.4131591 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
: F=normal(A)
: F
1 2 3 4
5
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
1 | .8413447461 .9772498681 .998650102 .9999683288
..9999997133 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
: U=uniform()
wrong number of arguments for uniform()
r(3000);
: U=uniform():*1
wrong number of arguments for uniform()
r(3000);
: U=uniform():*A
wrong number of arguments for uniform()
r(3000);
What am I doing wrong? Also, nowhere in the Mata manuals can I find
anything about what arguments the statistical functions take. After
going to interactive "help', I finally found out they were the same as
the Stata function arguments. So if that's true, why doesn't "uniform()"
work?
Al Feiveson
*
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* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
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