I can't add to what I said earlier, or wrote much earlier as cited,
except to emphasise that this function is here on a knife-edge:
. di round(8.755, 0.01)
8.76
. di round(3.86 + 4.895, 0.01)
8.75
If you want exact decimal calculations, you need to do all your workings
in integers, and convert only when obliged to.
Nick
[email protected]
[email protected]
Hello Nick,
thanks for quick answering.
Quoting "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>:
3. Not your question, but -egen, sum()- is a poor way to do a sum.
but in the numerical example I provided egen,sum() turns out to
provide the exact answer (8.76), which I can't get using collapse (sum).
My problem is that I never use "egen, sum" when working with real data
while I often use "collapse (sum)", that seems to be not very
appropriate.
I think the problem is in the way the "collapse" command and the "round"
function are related: I verified that if the line "gen double
r2=round(a*100)/100" (see after the "collapse" command) is separated
in 2 parts, like:
collapse (sum) a
gen double temp=a*100
gen double r2=round(temp)/100
The resulting r2 is correct (but I don't know why).
Quoting "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>:
> I have three comments here.
>
> 1. -egen- by default will generate -float- variables (unless you have
> -set type double-). So, you shouldn't be surprised to lose a little
> precision there. Functions like -round()- that may make knife-edge
> decisions are likely to show this up. The first FAQ cited below is a
> similar case.
>
> 2. This is all part of a larger issue: Stata works in binary. Stata
does
> not do decimal arithmetic!
>
> See for example
>
> FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Results of the mod(x,y)
> function
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox and T. J.
> Steichen
> 2/03 Why does the mod(x,y) function sometimes give
> puzzling results?
> Why is mod(0.3,0.1) not equal to 0?
> http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/mod.html
>
> FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The accuracy of the float
> data type
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
W.
> Gould
> 5/01 How many significant digits are there in a float?
> http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/prec.html
>
> FAQ . . . . . . . . . Comparing floating-point values (the float
> function)
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
J.
> Wernow
> 3/01 Why can't I compare two values that I know are equal?
> http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/float.html
>
> FAQ . . . . . . . . . Why am I losing precision with large whole
> numbers?
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . UCLA Academic Technology
> Services
> 7/08 http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/faq/longid.htm
>
> SJ-8-2 pr0038 Mata Matters: Overflow, underflow & IEEE
floating-point
> format
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J. M.
> Linhart
> Q2/08 SJ 8(2):255--268 (no
> commands)
> focuses on underflow and overflow and details of how
> floating-point numbers are stored in the IEEE 754
> floating-point standard
>
> SJ-6-4 pr0025 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mata matters:
> Precision
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
W.
> Gould
> Q4/06 SJ 6(4):550--560 (no
> commands)
> looks at programming implications of the floating-point,
> base-2 encoding that modern computers use
>
> SJ-6-2 dm0022 . Tip 33: Sweet sixteen: Hexadec. formats & precision
> problems
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
N.
> J. Cox
> Q2/06 SJ 6(2):282--283 (no
> commands)
> tip for using hexadecimal formats to understand precision
> problems in Stata
>
> 3. Not your question, but -egen, sum()- is a poor way to do a sum. A
> better way is -summarize, meanonly-. However, I guess that your real
> problem is understanding what -egen- does with some real data, but
> nevertheless note using -summarize- directly and picking up r(sum) is
> always better for a single sum.
>
> Nick
> [email protected]
>
> Carlo
>
> Here is my code:
>
> clear
> version 9.2
> set obs 1
> gen double a=3.86
> save data1,replace
>
> clear
> set obs 1
> gen double a=4.895
> save data2,replace
>
> use data1,clear
> append using data2
> egen sum=sum(a)
> gen double r1=round(sum*100)/100
> list
> collapse (sum) a
> gen double r2=round(a*100)/100
> list
>
> Why are r1 and r2 not equal ?
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