Re: st: tostring for large double type variables?

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

That is very clear.

You are going to want to process these individually, so why not read
them in as 45 distinct numeric variables?

On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 7:44 PM, Paul Burkander <paul@burkander.com> wrote:
> yes, the numbers are just identifiers.  Specifically, they are the
> concatenated answers from a multiple choice test.  The test might have
> about 45 questions for a given subject, and the answers are 1-5, for
> instance.
>
> We receive new files each year with updated test results.  The format
> for the files changes quite frequently.  I'm trying my best to come up
> with a general system that will append all the files as future files
> arrive.  I'm striving to avoid requiring specific coding for specific
> problems.  I carefully categorize variables based on whether they can
> be easily set to the same type.  For those that can't be, I do a force
> destring, but then I lose some information.  I thought it would be
> useful to set up an alternative process where instead I change the
> "problem" variables to strings, but unfortunately I've run into this
> problem.  Ultimately I'd like a general method of reconciling all
> variable types across data sets that doesn't require a case-by-case
> approach.
>
> Let me know if more clarification would be useful.
>
> Paul
>
> On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 12:47 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
>> As its original author, I am not clear that this is a good use of
>> -tostring-, but its -format()- option offers in principle what you
>> seek.
>>
>> You might get better advice if you said more about the data and quite
>> how this strange situation occurs. The bottom line is that what you
>> intend to do with the variable should have most influence on how it is stored.
>>
>> At the moment I'm having real difficulty imagining a measurement
>> process that yields 45 digits. Is there a decimal point? Are these
>> "numbers" just identifiers of some kind?
>>
>> Nick
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 4:11 PM, Paul Burkander <paul@burkander.com> wrote:
>>>  I'm appending files over multiple years where the variable type
>>> changes over time.  I have a variable that's a long string of numbers
>>> (about 45 numbers) in some years, but which is stored as double in
>>> other years.  I'd like to be able to store the variable as either a
>>> string or double in the appended file, but I can't figure out a way to
>>> use the tostring command that doesn't truncate the double variable.
>>>
>>>  Is there an easy way to preserve the information and string the variable?
>>

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