Re: st: using varlist wildcards in anova

[Will Hauser <whauseriii@gmail.com>]

Hello all,
As a practical workaround I use excel to duplicate command lines and 
varlists and such when I cannot figure out the syntax for a stata 
macro.  You can quickly create a list where you duplicate or 'fill' 
"t1993" "t1994 "t1995" in a column or row.  In your case you'd probably 
want a horizontal list, instead of dragging down you can just drag 
across.  In either case you can quickly get a list of your t variables 
running to whatever number you like (you could generate hundreds of t 
variables in seconds).  If you cut and paste that list into a do file 
then the spaces will be tabs; if that presents a problem for you then 
quickly cut and paste it into notepad first and find/replace (ctrl h) 
all tabs with spaces.

I know it's not really a solution to what appears to be a problem with 
the anova command in stata 9 but as a practical workaround to this and 
other similar problems I find that excel in combination with notepad can 
be a lifesaver.  I apologize if I'm pointing out the obvious to you 
experts out there.

Will


Phil Schumm wrote:
> On Apr 3, 2010, at 6:25 PM, Phil Schumm wrote:
> > On Apr 3, 2010, at 5:45 PM, Vineet Bhagwat wrote:
> > > Which is weird, because on my computer's Stata, "reg y t* " and any 
> > > other command using the asterisk works fine, just -anova- that seems 
> > > to throw the error for some reason.  I'm using Stata9 on my computer 
> > > if that clarifies anything.
> >
> >
> > Well, at least that narrows it down.  I no longer have a version of 
> > Stata 9 on my machine, so I can't look at this issue further.  
> > Perhaps someone with Stata 9 still available (or a better memory of 
> > -anova- under version 9) might be able to add something.
> >
> > One workaround would be the following (IIRC, -unab- predated Stata 9):
> >
> >    unab t: t*
> >    anova y `t'
> >
> > though upgrading, if possible, would clearly be preferable.
>
>
> Ok, I must confess that this made me a bit curious, especially since 
> my previous statement
>
>
> On Apr 3, 2010, at 5:21 PM, Phil Schumm wrote:
> > Regardless, this isn't due to -anova-, but rather is a function of 
> > how Stata is parsing the command line.
>
>
> was clearly incorrect (I also misspoke when I said "parsing the 
> command line" -- what I should have said was "expanding the 
> varlist").  Instead, this *does* have to do with -anova-'s syntax.  I 
> pulled an old copy of Stata 9, and sure enough, I get exactly the 
> behavior Vineet describes.
>
> Unfortunately, in Stata 9 -anova- was a built-in command, so we can't 
> look at the source.  However, the syntax diagram
>
>     anova varname [term [/] [term [/] ...]] [if] [in] [weight] [,
>           options]
>
>     where term is of the form   varname[{*||}varname[...]]
>
> suggests that -anova- was using its own approach to interpret the list 
> of model terms, and although one could specify a model as a simple 
> list of variables, -anova- under Stata 9 evidently didn't support 
> varname globbing.
>
> In sum, the workaround I gave above is your only option under Stata 9.
>
>
> -- Phil
>
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