Check whether variable exists in if-conditions

In some applications, e.g. if you want to save coefficient estimates from a regression with many dummies (e.g. fixed effects), you might want to store coefficients as estimates. In this example, we are interested in storing the estimates of the GROUPVAR dummies, but not the dummies of OTHERVAR. While this is usually straightforward by writing

Continue reading “Check whether variable exists in if-conditions”

Formatting text in Stata figures

Simple formatting for text in Stata figures

This is not really new, but still comes in handy when formatting text in Stata figures. With a relatively simple code, you can make write text bold, in italics, and even greek letters.

Continue reading “Formatting text in Stata figures”

Data storage type matters

Despite most sources tell that the storage type in stata should not matter, it is worth checking whether this is the case for your dataset. I just came across a situation where two identically constructed datasets (one stored in default type (float) and one stored in double) generated different output. Also before that i encountered a problem with person identifiers in the GSOEP if using the default data storage. If your dataset is not huge (with the GSOEP it still works quite ok) it might be worth to take the safe side and use

 set type double 

before you assemble your data set. This saves the data in the most precise way stata offers.