st: Unpublicized changes to Saved Results for -reshape-

[Roger Newson <r.newson@imperial.ac.uk>]

Fellow Statalisters (especially StataCorp):

I have noticed some recent unpublicized changes to the Saved Results for 
the -reshape- command (see -help reshape-). In my Stata 11.0 (which I 
updated today to the sub-version dated 20 April 2010), the -reshape- 
command produces a selection of returned dataset characteristics that is 
different from the selection advertized in -help reshape-. In 
particular, if I use -reshape wide-, then the advertized result 
-_dta[ReS_jv]- (containing the values of the variable specified by the 
-j()- option) is no longer stored. On the other hand, if the variable 
specified by the -j()- option had a value label, then -reshape- saves 
the unpublicized results -_dta[__JValLabName]-, containing the name of 
the value label, and -_dta[__JValLab]-, containing the values of the 
-j()- variable alternating with the corresponding value labels.

The changes have the appearance of being work in progress, and, when 
complete, will probably extend the capabilities of -reshape- in ways 
which will be useful to users like me, who frequently use -reshape- to 
produce tables with multiple columns of confidence intervals (see 
Section 4.4 of Newson, 2003). However, the selection of results seems 
currently to be unstable, implying that it is currently not a good idea 
for users to use these saved results in their own programs. Are these 
results likely to stabilize soon? If not, then it is probably a good 
idea for users to avoid using these results for the time being, and to 
make their own solutions. (I currently often use Ben Jann's very useful 
-labelsof- package, downloadable from SSC, when I want to store values 
and labels of -j()- variables when using -reshape wide-.)

Best wishes

Roger


References

Newson R. 2003. Confidence intervals and p-values for delivery to the 
end user. The Stata Journal 3(3): 245-269. Download from
http://www.stata-journal.com/article.html?article=st0043


--
Roger B Newson BSc MSc DPhil
Lecturer in Medical Statistics
Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health Group
National Heart and Lung Institute
Imperial College London
Royal Brompton Campus
Room 33, Emmanuel Kaye Building
1B Manresa Road
London SW3 6LR
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 (0)20 7352 8121 ext 3381
Fax: +44 (0)20 7351 8322
Email: r.newson@imperial.ac.uk
Web page: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/nhli/r.newson/
Departmental Web page:
http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about/divisions/nhli/respiration/popgenetics/reph/

Opinions expressed are those of the author, not of the institution.
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