Re: st: Levelsof for more than one Variable

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

I think you will need to use compound double quotes.

Compare the results of

sysuse auto, clear
levelsof make in 1/10, local(levels)
di "`levels'"
di `"`levels'"'

Nick

On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 4:22 PM, Roberto Liebscher
<roberto.liebscher@ku.de> wrote:
> Thanks Maarten for the kind help. However I still haven't managed to get the
> code working.
>
> Like you said I typed
>
> levelsof var1, local(loc1)
> levelsof var2, local(loc2)
>
>
> // stack the macros
> // NOTICE: no "=" sign
> local loc "`loc1' `loc2'"
>
>
> // get rid of the duplicates
> local loc : list uniq loc
>
> But when I type
>
> display "`loc'"
>
> to get the final list an error message is prompted saying
>
> `ABN not found
> r(111);
>
> where ABN is part of the first element of loc1 ("ABN Amro Bank"). Is it a
> problem that my elements in the list contain blank spaces? Is there a way
> around? I already tried the same code with the blank space being replaced by
> "_" (using subinstr). Following this another error message pops up saying
> "`unknown function ABN_AMRO_Bank_N.V."' `"BNP_Paribas"'" . I do not know
> what is wrong here. Any help is highly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Roberto
>
>
> --
> Roberto Liebscher
> Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt
> Department of Business Administration
> Chair of Banking and Finance
> Auf der Schanz 49
> D-85049 Ingolstadt
> Germany
>
> Am 21.01.2013 15:52, schrieb Nick Cox:
>>
>> As a kind of meta-comment I recommend against the use of "unique" in
>> this context.
>>
>> "Unique" means occurring once only. It's a good word, and best left to
>> mean that, as your school teachers may have urged. For example,
>> "StataCorp is a unique company". Very true (if also trite).
>>
>> Naturally, some might want to start the age-old discussion of whether
>> usage sanctifies abuse of etymology.  But even descriptively-inclined
>> dictionaries don't seem to sanction the sense of this word "unique" as
>> meaning "distinct", which I suggest is a much better word than
>> "unique" for this purpose.
>>
>> My guess is that the popularity of "unique" in this meaning stems
>> partly from Unix utilities such as -uniq-, which removes copies from a
>> list and leaves one and one copy of each distinct item as a result.
>> Thus
>>
>> a a a b b c
>>
>> would be reduced to
>>
>> a b c
>>
>> by such utilities.
>>
>> Here uniqueness defines each item in the result, not each item in the
>> argument. My guess is that many software developers encountered such
>> utilities such as -uniq- in their youth and that had a greater
>> influence on them than their English dictionaries (if they had one) or
>> their English teachers (if they paid them much attention).
>>
>> I have a long-term plan to persuade StataCorp of this too. See also
>>
>> SJ-8-4  dm0042  . . . . . . . . . . . .  Speaking Stata: Distinct
>> observations
>>          (help distinct if installed)  . . . . . .  N. J. Cox and G. M.
>> Longton
>>          Q4/08   SJ 8(4):557--568
>>          shows how to answer questions about distinct observations
>>          from first principles; provides a convenience command
>>
>> I can't speak authoritatively on languages other than English -- "not
>> even", some might think -- so not mentioning them means only that.
>>
>> Nick
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 2:30 PM, Maarten Buis <maartenlbuis@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> // collect the values
>>> levelsof var1, locals(loc1)
>>> levelsof var2, locals(loc2)
>>>
>>> // stack the macros
>>> // NOTICE: no "=" sign
>>> local loc "`loc1' `loc2'"
>>>
>>> // get rid of the duplicates
>>> local loc : list uniq loc
>>>
>>> For more see: -help extended_fcn- and especially -help macrolists-
>>>
>>> Hope this helps,
>>> Maarten
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 3:02 PM, Roberto Liebscher
>>> <roberto.liebscher@ku.de> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I have two variables both containing string values. I would like to get
>>>> all
>>>> unique values (not the number of unique values) from these two variables
>>>> jointly.
>>>>
>>>> For example if I enter
>>>>
>>>> levelsof var1, locals(loc1)
>>>> levelsof var2, locals(loc2)
>>>>
>>>> I obtain all unique values of var1 and all unique values of var2. But at
>>>> the
>>>> end I would like to have one local containing only unique values in loc1
>>>> AND
>>>> loc2.
>>>>
>>>> Is there anyone who can help me with this?
>>
>> *
>>
>> *   For searches and help try:
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>> *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>
>
> *
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*
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