Re: st: find categorical variables

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

The assumption is fallacious. As one of many counter-examples,
consider a variable that is 50% 0s and 50% 1s. The mean would be 0.5.
The same example shows that the median of integers need not be integer
either; while the mode of integers must be integer, the mode is not
always well defined, at least with the usual naive definitions of
mode. In any case the converse does not follow for any of these
measures, i.e. an integer-valued summary implies very little of
consequence.

The problem is related to that in a concurrent thread, started by Bert Jung in

http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2012-03/msg00731.html

and with no closure yet, on distinguishing binary from continuous
variables. The discussion in that thread is broken, so use e.g.

http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2012-03/

as a catalogue of contributions.

Stata clearly has no precise notion of categorical variables; it has a
precise notion of factor variables, but nothing makes the use of
factor variables compulsory for what any researcher might call
categorical variables. Categoricity, like beauty, is in the eye of the
beholder.

So, you need a definition, and whatever definition you use will not be
fail-safe, but it is easy enough to find all variables that are
integer-valued. With -findname- (SSC, SJ) you can do this

findname, all(@ == int(@))

(-floor()- or -ceil()- would work fine instead of -int()-). The
criterion for an integer used here is that it rounds to itself.

I also posted yesterday a signal that -distinct- (SSC) has just been
updated in a way that makes it more useful in this territory.

http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2012-03/msg00893.html

-distinct- lets you find the number of distinct values. I know that
many users work with categorical variables with many, many categories,
so that need not be part of your criterion.

As in the thread cited above, note also the possibility that
categorical variables are held in string form.

Nick

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 9:02 AM, Jakob Petersen <jpeterb@essex.ac.uk> wrote:

> Looking for a way to distinguish categorical from other types of variables.
> The following code is based on the assumption that the mean of a variable of
> all integers would be an integer, but _rc seems to take the value 7 here
> regardless - any ideas? Many thanks in advance.
>
> ** finding categorical variables ******
> sysuse auto,clear
> local catvarlist
> foreach v of var * {
> qui su `v',mean
> cap confirm integer number `r(mean)'
> if _rc==0 {
> local catvarlist `catvarlist' `v'
> }
> }
> di "`catvarlist'"
> ***************************************
> *adapted from: http://www.stata-journal.com/article.html?article=dm0048
>
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