Re: st: generate variable versus define scalar, with conditional statement

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

See the review in excruciating detail in

@article \{dm0055,
	author = "Cox, N. J.",
	title = "Speaking Stata: Compared with ...",
	journal = "Stata Journal",
	publisher = "Stata Press",
	address = "College Station, TX",
	volume = "11",
	number = "2",
	year = "2011",
	pages = "305-314(10)",
	url = "http://www.stata-journal.com/article.html?article=dm0055";
}

Abstract.  Many problems in data management center on relating values
to values in other observations, either within a dataset as a whole or
within groups such as panels. This column reviews some basic Stata
techniques helpful for such tasks, including the use of subscripts,
summarize, by:, sum(), cond(), and egen. Several techniques exploit
the fact that logical expressions yield 1 when true and 0 when false.
Dividing by zero to yield missings is revealed as a surprisingly
valuable device.

http://www.stata-journal.com/article.html?article=dm0055

On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 1:52 PM, annoporci <annoporci@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I doubt that you need to loop, but I am completely in the dark over
>> what it is that you want to do.
>>
>> Nick
>
>
>
> I'm generating indices starting at different dates, so I want to use the
> value of the variable at some date of my choosing (not the first
> date in the dataset!) to generate an index starting at, say, the value 1,
> by dividing all observations by that value. Very simple. Probably one-line
> of code or less.
>
> ;-)
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