st: new package -fastxtile- available in SSC

[Michael Stepner <stepner@mit.edu>]

-fastxtile- is a Stata routine to create a variable of quantile
categories.  It is now available in the SSC, with thanks to Kit Baum.

fastxtile is a drop in replacement for the built-in Stata program
xtile. It has the same syntax and produces identical results, but the
process has been altered to be more computationally efficient.  The
difference in running time is substantial in large datasets.

fastxtile also has a few added features.  It supports computing the
quantile boundaries using a random sample of the data, which further
increases the speed, but generates approximate quantiles due to
sampling error.  fastxtile can also create categories based on a
user-specified numlist, rather than computing the quantile boundaries
itself.

For anyone currently using -xtile- with large datasets, -fastxtile- is
worth checking out.  It has no downside, and runs significantly
faster.

If you're interested, you can install the program via -ssc install fastxtile-.

Best regards,
Michael
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