RE: st: re-sorting display order after -encode-

["Radwin, David" <dradwin@rti.org>]

Jeph, 

At risk of drifting somewhat the original topic, you might consider
-fre- (Ben Jann, SSC) as an alternative for one-way frequencies. It
shows up to 50 characters of value labels by default. You can specify
more characters using the -width- option or let it wrap the labels.

David
--
David Radwin, Senior Research Associate
Education and Workforce Development
RTI International
2150 Shattuck Ave. Suite 800, Berkeley, CA 94704
Phone: 510-665-8274

www.rti.org/education


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-
> statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Jeph Herrin
> Sent: Monday, March 10, 2014 2:05 PM
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: st: re-sorting display order after -encode-
> 
> Apart from taking care with -encode-, I've long thought that the
> workhorse -tab oneway- could offer some additional display options.
> There is an option to sort on descending frequency, but this makes it
> even more natural to include some other options, such as sorting on
> value label.
> 
> Would also be very nice if -tab- could be persuaded to display the
full
> width, or at least up to say 40 characters, of the value label.
> 
> cheers,
> Jeph
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 3/10/2014 3:25 PM, Nick Cox wrote:
> > There are some related comments in
> >
> > SJ-11-2 dm0057  . . . . . . . . .  Stata tip 99: Taking extra care
with
> encode
> >          . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
C.
> Schechter
> >          Q2/11   SJ 11(2):321--322
(no
> commands)
> >          tip on safely using encode across datasets
> >
> > That said, the fact that alphanumeric ordering almost always is not
> > what you want with ordered scales could, I think, be flagged a
little
> > more prominently in the official documentation. Once you understand,
> > it is obvious, but it deserves a short comment.
> >
> >
> > Nick
> > njcoxstata@gmail.com
> >
> >
> > On 10 March 2014 19:09, Michael McCulloch
<mm@pinestreetfoundation.org>
> wrote:
> >> Thanks Nick!
> >>
> >>
> >> Best wishes,
> >> Michael McCulloch
> >>
> >> --
> >> Pine Street Foundation, since 1989
> >> 124 Pine Street | San Anselmo | California | 94960-2674
> >> P: (415) 407-1357 | F: (206) 338-2391 |
> http://www.PineStreetFoundation.org
> >>
> >> On Mar 10, 2014, at 1:26 AM, Nick Cox wrote:
> >>
> >>> You evidently just used the default produced by -encode- so that
> >>> incoming strings were labelled according to their alphanumeric
order.
> >>> Thus values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  correspond to strings "0-200" ...
> >>> "501-1,000". -encode- has no notion of looking inside the strings
to
> >>> discern a meaning and thus a natural order, any more than than it
can
> >>> sort "average" "bad" "good" into the correct order. You need to
define
> >>> labels in advance before you use -encode- or fix the problem using
> >>> -recode- or some equivalent.
> >>>
> >>> Nick
> >>> njcoxstata@gmail.com
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On 10 March 2014 03:01, Michael McCulloch
> <mm@pinestreetfoundation.org>
> >>>
> >>>> I have used -encode- to add value labels from string variable,
which
> are a series of numerical ranges stored as text.
> >>>>
> >>>> -codebook- shows the frequency data, and Label values, were
correct.
> >>>> Freq.                   Numeric         Label
> >>>> 121             1                       0-20
> >>>> 16                      2                       1,001+
> >>>> 36                      3                       101-500
> >>>> 81                      4                       21-100
> >>>> 8                       5                       501-1,000
> >>>>
> >>>> However, I wish to display them using -tab- so that the rows are
> sorted on the value label.
> >>>> The -encode- help file does not suggest this is possible. Is
there a
> workaround?
> >>>>
> >>>> What I want to achieve is -tab- showing this:
> >>>> Label                   Freq
> >>>> 0-20                    121
> >>>> 21-100                  81
> >>>> 101-500                 36
> >>>> 501-1,000               8
> >>>> 1,001+                  16

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