st: Cut function

[albert Lee <ajlee20005@gmail.com>]

Hi, just want to see if this has happened to anyone else, and if stata has
an explanation.  I was trying to bin a continuous variable into fixed
intervals.  According to stata documentation, this function

egen price_incrB=cut(price), at(`min'(`step')`max') icodes
(1 missing value generated)

For some reasons, one missing value is created.  It turns out that the max
is not covered by any increment from the egen cut function.  Is this due to
rounding?  Is this a bug?

I would appreciate anyone's insight.

Code fragments are included below.

Thanks, Albert Lee.

. sysuse auto, clear
(1978 Automobile Data)

.
. sum price, d

                        Price
-------------------------------------------------------------
  Percentiles      Smallest
1%         3291           3291
5%         3748           3299
10%         3895           3667       Obs                  74
25%         4195           3748       Sum of Wgt.          74

50%       5006.5                      Mean           6165.257
                    Largest       Std. Dev.      2949.496
75%         6342          13466
90%        11385          13594       Variance        8699526
95%        13466          14500       Skewness       1.653434
99%        15906          15906       Kurtosis       4.819188

.
. local max=r(max)

.
. local min=r(min)

.
. local step=(`max'-`min')/9

.
. disp `step'
1401.6667

.
. egen price_incrB=cut(price), at(`min'(`step')`max') icodes
(1 missing value generated)

.
. tab price_incrB, mi

price_incrB |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
      0 |         30       40.54       40.54
      1 |         21       28.38       68.92
      2 |          8       10.81       79.73
      3 |          3        4.05       83.78
      4 |          2        2.70       86.49
      5 |          4        5.41       91.89
      6 |          2        2.70       94.59
      7 |          3        4.05       98.65
      . |          1        1.35      100.00
------------+-----------------------------------
  Total |         74      100.00

.
. list price if price_incrB==.

 +--------+
 |  price |
 |--------|
13. | 15,906 |
 +--------+

--
Albert J. Lee, Ph.D.,
Economist

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