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Re: st: copying contents form existing to new variable
From
Patricia Biedermann <[email protected]>
To
[email protected]
Subject
Re: st: copying contents form existing to new variable
Date
Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:59:26 +0200
Thanks Nick for the quick reply.
I imported the data from an excel file; some of them where imported as
string variables and the labels came with importing too.
No, - NumberExamined- doesn't have value label
. describe total NumberExamined
storage display value
variable name type format label variable label
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
total long %8.0g stooltested number of stool tested
NumberExamined double %10.0g
When I did the -list var1 var2 if var1 != var2- command it didn't show
me any results....
On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 3:46 PM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
> Your variables are, it may be guessed, numerically identical. See the
> results of -summarize-.
>
> -total- has a value label, but -NumberExamined- seemingly doesn't.
> (You don't show -describe- for that.)
>
> You didn't show any results for -list var1 var2 if var1 != var2- which
> ignores the labels.
>
> Why do you need a value label for what looks numeric? Why was the
> original a string variable any way? Perhaps there were problems with
> stray characters.
>
> Nick
> [email protected]
>
>
> On 24 April 2013 14:38, Patricia Biedermann <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hello Nick,
>>
>> I used the -clonevar- command. The contents remained the same, but if
>> I do a simple calculation (cross multiplication) with var2 then the
>> results are wrong
>>
>> Here are some results of the approach I used before:
>> NumberExamined should be the copy of total
>>
>> list total NumberExamined
>>
>> total NumberExamined
>> 1. 51 38
>> 2. 18 10
>> 3. 20 12
>> 4. 19 11
>> 5. 55 41
>> etc
>>
>> describe total NumberExamined
>>
>> storage display value variable
>> variablename type format label label
>>
>> total long %8.0g stool stooltest
>>
>> su total NumberExamined
>>
>> Variable Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
>>
>> total 25 21.56 13.2164
>> 1 45
>> NumberExamined 25 21.56 13.2164 1 45
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 11:20 AM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> This could be as simple as your new variable not inheriting the value
>>> labels of the -encode-d variable. (Have a look at -clonevar-.)
>>>
>>> Otherwise, we need more evidence. What you do mean by the contents
>>> changing? Show us the results of
>>>
>>> . describe var1 var2
>>> . su var1 var2
>>> . list var1 var2 if var1 != var2 [example at least]
>>>
>>> Nick
>>> [email protected]
>>>
>>> On 24 April 2013 10:10, Patricia Biedermann <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> If I generate a new variable from an existing variable it happens that
>>>> the contents get changed.
>>>> gen var2=var1
>>>>
>>>> My approach is following:
>>>> 1) My original variable is string and I - encode - it: var1
>>>> 2) gen var2=var1
>>>>
>>>> At step 2) the contents changes.
>>>> I came along this Thread:
>>>> http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2012-05/msg01280.html
>>>> ..and tried to create a double variable first before copying the
>>>> variables. Anyway, the same problem appears again.
>>>>
>>>> What could be the problem? It did this thing (gen var2=var1) many
>>>> times and it always worked so far...
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