st: re: keep or delete the commands which need to revise when editing do files?

[Kit Baum <baum@bc.edu>]

< >
Mandy said

1) In step 3. above  I replace the incorrect commands with the correct
ones, and then re-run the commands to update the data sets created
2) I append some extra commands to the existent do files to revise.
That is, the initial incorrect commands remain in the do-files.

So do files for these two ways seem like as follows:
(1)
------------------------------------------------
*do file

command after revise
------------------------------------------------
2)
------------------------------------------------
.   . . . .*do file
initial commands(Which need to revise)
..............................
extra command to revise
-----------------------------------------------
Which way is better? How should I  decide this? This question is
important to me since it's helpful for me to  get good habit of
managing data sets and do files.




Personally, if I want to keep track of what turned out to be the wrong  
commands (perhaps so I don't do that the next time!) I would use a  
variation on the second strategy:  copy the wrong commands, comment  
them out, and correct their copies. That is, don't make all the  
corrections at the bottom, because that will only work if the  
incorrect variables are not used in any intermediate calculations.

I have not seen it, but with a ringing endorsement from Bill Gould at  
FNASUG, the new book on "The Workflow of Data Analysis in Stata" by  
Scott Long (Stata Press; see Stata's website) might be a good  
investment.

Kit Baum, Boston College Economics and DIW Berlin
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba1.html
An Introduction to Modern Econometrics Using Stata:
http://www.stata-press.com/books/imeus.html


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