On the shoulders of giants, or not reinventing the wheel

Nicholas Cox

United Kingdom Stata Users' Group Meetings 2017 from Stata Users Group

Abstract: Part of the art of coding is writing as little as possible to do as much as possible. The presentation expands on this truism. Examples are given of Stata code to yield graphs and tables in which most of the real work is happily delegated to workhorse commands. In graphics a key principle is that graph twoway is the most general command, even when you do not want rectangular axes. Variations on scatter and line plots are precisely that, variations on scatter and line plots. More challenging illustrations include commands for circular and triangular graphics, in which x and y axes are omitted, with an inevitable but manageable cost in re-creating scaffolding, titles, labels and other elements. In tabulations and listings the better known commands sometimes seem to fall short of what you want. However, a few preparation commands (such as generate, egen, collapse or contract) followed by list, tabdisp or _tab can get you a long way. The examples range in scope from a few lines of interactive code to fully developed programs. The presentation is thus pitched at all levels of Stata users.

Date: 2017-09-14
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http://repec.org/usug2017/cox-uksug17.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: On the shoulders of giants, or not reinventing the wheel (2019)
Working Paper: On the shoulders of giants, or not reinventing the wheel (2017)
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