Thanks for pointing this out,Tom. I was led astray by
"uniform() is the same function as Stata's uniform() function. "
After seeing this,I didn't even notice that the arguments were
different. But in view of the fact that for some functions, the
arguments are not the same in Stata as in Mata, I don't see why the Mata
manual can't simply give the correct arguments? As written without
arguments, the list in [M-4] does not supply useful information.
Al
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steichen,
Thomas J.
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 3:01 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: st: RE: mata (simple): generating random numbers
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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