st: How to create a blank n x n matrix; how to refer to variables without using ID; how to extract colnames and rownames from the dataset.

["Chen, Xianwen" <xianwen.chen@gmail.com>]

Hi there,


I'm new to Stata and having been googling for following three
questions for more than an hour. I hope you can give me a hint.


The first question is a fast way to create a n x n matrix. For
example, to create a 8 x 8 matrix for later data manipulation. What I
now do is to create a matrix by
  matrix define mat1=vect1,vect1,vect1,vect1,vect1,vect1,vect1,vect1
where vect1 is a 8x1 matrix

Is there a better way of doing it? For example, something like
  matrix define mat1={1:8,1:8}


The second question is regarding variables. I want to search through
the variables by each entry of the data. I can specify the column IDs
but I want a more automated solution.

Is there a way of working with it, say
  somefunction{1,}
will actually refer to the first column of the dataset?


The third question is to extract colnames and rownames from the
datasets. Is there a function I can use?


I'm sorry for bombing all question all together in an email if it
doesn't fit the netiquette here. I just don't want to send three
questions in three mails, which may be annoying.

Xianwen
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