Re: st: Re: Questions for random data generation and value label

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

See also -ds- and -findname- (SJ) for canned solutions.

Nick

On 9 Mar 2013, at 07:19, "Joseph Coveney" <stajc2@gmail.com> wrote:

> Yu Xue wrote:
>
> I have two questions:
>
> Question 1:
> I am trying to build up synthetic/fake dataset, using random generated
> variables. Of each variable I know:
> 1) mean
> 2) standard deviation
> 3) range of values (min and max values.)
> How can I ask STATA to randomly generate a variable with all those
> specified parameters?
>
> Question 2:
> How to know if a variable has a value label attached? I know I can
> take a look at the result of "describe" or use "label list" to list
> all value labels. But what I want is a command that can return a value
> for each variable to show if it has value label attached or not.
>
> ---
> ---
> ---
> ---
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I can't help you with your first question; I'm guessing that, unless  
> the
> distribution is naturally bounded, you're going to have some trouble  
> juggling
> more than two of the three matching requirements.
>
> For your second question, you can use an extended macro function in  
> order to
> programmatically detect whether a variable has a value label.  Type - 
> help
> extended_fcn- to find out more.  There might be better ways that I  
> don't know
> about or that don't occur to me at the moment, and others can chime  
> in to help
> us both there.
>
> Joseph Coveney
>
> . sysuse auto, clear
> (1978 Automobile Data)
>
> . foreach var of varlist make gear_ratio foreign {
>  2. local value_label : value label `var'
>  3. if "`value_label'" != "" display in smcl as text "`var' has  
> value labels"
>  4. else display in smcl as text "`var' doesn't have any value labels"
>  5. }
> make doesn't have any value labels
> gear_ratio doesn't have any value labels
> foreign has value labels
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