missing values row and "column"

[Franz Gerbig]

Hi folks,

iIs there a way to ...
1. egen num_nonmiss = rownonmiss(), strok - adding sth like ignore(, - : .)?
2. not only show the last value for each ob but the variable it's stored in as well (and again with kind of ignore(, - : .)?
(since egen lastvalue, rowlast() definitely falls "over for a mix of numeric and string variables", see Andrzej's thread:
http://www.stata.com/statalist/archi.../msg01511.html)


Thx a lot
Franz

[Nick Cox]

And what is it that you want ignored? A concrete data example (real or realistic) would help.

[Franz Gerbig]

the chars specified: ignore(, - : .) - or would it be ignore("," ":" ".")?

[Nick Cox]

Your punctuation was misinterpreted as an emoticon (smiley) before you edited it.

The short answer is: write your own loop; and that is expanded on in a review of working row-wise.
http://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf.h...iclenum=pr0046

I assume that you are working with string variables only. This gives a template

gen count = 0
gen last = ""
gen whichlast = ""

foreach v of var stringvarlist {
     replace last = `v' if !inlist(`v',"",",",";",":")
     replace whichlast = "`v'" if !inlist(`v',"",",",";",":")
     replace count = count + !inlist(`v',"",",",";",":")
}

[Franz Gerbig]

Hi again,

using

foreach var of varlist stringlist {
replace `var' = "" if inlist(`var', " ", ".", ",", ";", ":", "-")
}

I eliminated those actually invalid string values.

So now, I'd like to identify the last valid value and variable - whether numeric or string (I need to deal with both).
Do you have an idea how to get there?

greetings
Franz

[Nick Cox]

Your criterion of interest is presumably now != ""; otherwise it's the same idea.

[Franz Gerbig]

From time to time I go back to the issue and try to solve it ...

//some completely senseless example data
input id edu str20 name age str6 sex str6 city
id    edu    name            age    sex            city
1    2    "A. Doyle"        22    "male"        "Durban"
2    4    "Mary Hope"        37    "female"    "Urban"
3    7    "Guy Fawkes"    48    "male"        ""
4    3    ","                69    "male"        ""
5    5    "Mc Fly"        53    "-"            ""
6    8    "Mil Grim"        70    ""            ""
end

//starting the actual job I'm dealing with
gen count = 0
gen lastval = ""
gen lastvar = ""

ds id count lastval lastvar, not //store only real question variables into the macro
global questions "`r(varlist)'"
foreach v of varlist $questions {
     replace lastval = "`v'" if !inlist(`v',"",",",";",":",".") & !missing(`v') //identify last given valid value for an observation
     replace lastvar = "`v'" if !inlist(`v',"",",",";",":",".") & !missing(`v') //identify last variable containing that value for that observation
     replace count = count + !inlist(`v',"",",",";",":",".") & !missing(`v')
}

I get a type mismatch - for the combined if referring to str and numeric vars, I guess.
Should I, do it for all strings and all numeric vars separately? But how do I know which one is the real lastvar (string a maybe the last str with a valid value, but numericvar b might show up later - and vice versa)?

However, I wonder if I have to nest the loop above into a foreach x { ..., shouldn't I?

Thank you very much for some light on all this!

[Franz Gerbig]

Well, a simple

tostring `v', replace

as first element of the loop,
quit the quotes of lastval = "`v'" (obtaining lastval = `v' only),
quit the & !missing(`v')
and a tiny correction in the brackets of the !inlist (one char was missing: "-")

doe pretty well :

foreach v of varlist $questions {
     tostring `v', replace
     replace lastval = `v' if !inlist(`v',"","-",",",";",":",".")
     replace lastvar = "`v'" if !inlist(`v',"","-",",",";",":",".")
     replace count = count + !inlist(`v',"","-",",",";",":",".")
}

It had to be sth simple
Thanks a lot!