Re: st: How to save and use the output of stata command -list-

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

Roberto Ferrer proposed a much simpler solution, but for future
reference note that there are more problems with your code than you
realise.

Even with the unnecessary loop, you can trim this down. The -replace-
statements wouldn't work as you must use -in `i'-, not subscripts. The
answer to your specific question on -list- is to repeat the same
-summarize- trick used just before.

I haven't tested this, but it should have fewer problems.

g IDclosest = .
forval i = 1/52 {
      g gdp_diff = abs(gdp-gdp[`i']) if _n != `i'
      su gdp_diff, meanonly
      su IDnumber if gdp_diff ==r(min), meanonly
      replace IDclosest = r(min) in `i'
      drop gdp_diff
}

Roberto's approach remains much better.

Nick
njcoxstata@gmail.com


On 22 August 2013 01:21, Md Alauddin Majumder <mm4v@mtmail.mtsu.edu> wrote:
> Hi Nick,
> Thanks for your instructive comments. Let me modify the description of my problem. My dataset is the following:
>
>  IDnumber                        State              gdp
>
>     1                             Alabama              232
>     2                               Alaska               145
>     ..                                 ....                     ...
>     ..                                 ....                     ...
>     ..                                 ....                     ...
>    52                            Wyoming             210
>
> I want to create a variable (IDclosest) whose each cell will contain the IDnumber of a state closest to the state in question in terms of gdp. I have constructed the following loop to create the variable:
>
> g IDclosest=.
> forval i=1/52 {
>      g gdp`i'=gdp[`i']
>      g gdp_diff`i'=abs(gdp-gdp`i')
>      replace gdp_diff`i'[`i']=.
>      qui sum gdp_diff`i'
>      list IDnumber if gdp_diff`i'==r(min)
>      replace IDclosest[`i']=???
>     drop gdp`i' gdp_diff`i'
> }
>
> The 7th and the 8th lines of the loop are what I need to address. Thanks.
>
>
> Regards
> Majumder
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] on behalf of Nick Cox [njcoxstata@gmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 5:05 PM
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: st: How to save and use the output of stata command -list-
>
> You have asked several variants of this question already:
>
> http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2013-08/msg00697.html
>
> http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2013-08/msg00844.html
>
> http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2013-08/msg00847.html
>
> and the replies have clearly not helped you. So, first, it seems that
> people aren't clear on the real problem, you don't understand their
> replies, or quite possibly both.
>
> If you don't understand the replies you should be asking more
> questions, or trying to make the problem clearer, or both.
>
> -list- does not save anything. Its main job is to list data. See the
> documentation http://www.stata.com/manuals13/dlist.pdf to understand
> this.
>
> That said, I don't understand your question. In your example, the
> first observation is for Alabama. It makes no obvious sense why you
> want to put a descriptor for Wyoming there.
>
> Regardless, Eric Booth answered essentially the same question
>
> http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2013-08/msg00846.html
>
> http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2013-08/msg00848.html
>
> but you didn't explain what was wrong with his answer.
>
> We need much more detail from you.
>
> Nick
> njcoxstata@gmail.com
>
> On 21 August 2013 22:46, Md Alauddin Majumder <mm4v@mtmail.mtsu.edu> wrote:
>
>> I want to save and subsequently use the output that I find from the command -list-. Can anyone tell how to do that in stata? Let me give an example to further clarify. I have a data set like the following:
>>
>> IDnumber                        State             NewID
>>
>>    1                             Alabama                .
>>    2                               Alaska                 .
>>    ..                                 ....                     ...
>>    ..                                 ....                     ...
>>    ..                                 ....                     ...
>>   52                            Wyoming               .
>>
>> If I input -list IDnumber if State=="Wyoming"-, it returns '52'. Now I want to fill the first cell of the variable NewID by this output. How can I write code for that? Thanks in advance.
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