[Richard Williams]

I would also like to see a programmer's function to copy from and paste into the clipboard directly from a do file.

Can you clarify or give an example of what you mean? I can interactively copy and paste from a do file, but you seem to have some sort of function in mind that would do it for you.

[Belinda Foster]

I would also like to see a programmer's function to copy from and paste into the clipboard directly from a do file.

"I repeat my request that Stata buy out MPlus"
Wow. What an intriguing idea. I'm not sure the Mplus team would want to be bought, but it's a fascinating thought. It would not only substantially improve various forms of latent variable analyses in Stata, but also its Bayesian analyses. I have given up on using Stata for SEM, because of speed issues.
However (as Richard Williams already knows), anyone having access to Mplus can run it from within Stata using runmplus (add-on function written by Rich J Jones).

[Andrea Discacciati]

I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, to incorporate into the do-file editor the kind of functionality Tom Snell is asking for. The do-editor functions largely independently of main Stata. When I open a do-file, there is no assurance that the relevant data file is currently open. Indeed, it's not clear how the do-editor would even figure out what data file to refer to for the purpose. Even if this worked at the beginning of a do-file, as the data changes due to -keep-, -drop-, -collapse- and -merge- commands over the course of the code, the advice given by a prompt could become wildly inaccurate.

RStudio has many of the functionalities Tom mentions in his post. I'm not saying that Stata should incorporate them, just that it's technically possible to incorporate them.

[Nigel Moore]

Did you know that you can click on variable names in the Variables window?

And if you press spacebar before clicking back into the command line, State inserts the variable again. Gets me every time

TAB doesn't though. Must remember that lifesaver!

[Tom Snell]

I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, to incorporate into the do-file editor the kind of functionality Tom Snell is asking for.

Indeed - I don't think the tab expansion function would be practical beyond the command window. It works very well there and is something I'll be using a lot more now I'm aware of it!

What I would find helpful, prompted by what Tom Snell said in #47, is for -describe- to be changed so that, by default, it shows the full variable names.

I agree - at least having fullnames as an option under lookfor would be very handy. It might also be useful for other commands such as sum that abbreviate longer variable names with a tilde (although desc `r(varlist)',full serves as a workaround here as well).

[Clyde Schechter]

I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, to incorporate into the do-file editor the kind of functionality Tom Snell is asking for. The do-editor functions largely independently of main Stata. When I open a do-file, there is no assurance that the relevant data file is currently open. Indeed, it's not clear how the do-editor would even figure out what data file to refer to for the purpose. Even if this worked at the beginning of a do-file, as the data changes due to -keep-, -drop-, -collapse- and -merge- commands over the course of the code, the advice given by a prompt could become wildly inaccurate.

What I would find helpful, prompted by what Tom Snell said in #47, is for -describe- to be changed so that, by default, it shows the full variable names.

[Tom Snell]

You can also hit the tab key when in the command line and a popup window appears with all of the variables' names in a drop-down list that you can select from. I'm not aware of any similar functionality in the do-file editor, though.

Amazing - thank you! If you type in the first few letters before hitting tab it filters just on the matching variable names - this was exactly what I was after.

[Joseph Coveney]

You can also hit the tab key when in the command line and a popup window appears with all of the variables' names in a drop-down list that you can select from. I'm not aware of any similar functionality in the do-file editor, though.

[Tom Snell]

Thanks - it's mainly as a time-saver for when I have a lot of complex variable names with similar prefixes.

I'm familiar with clicking variable names from the window - the alternative that I usually use is to lookfor the first part of the variable name (and then " desc `r(varlist)',full " to return the full variable names.

Edit: can we at least have an animated blinking paperclip?

[Nick Cox]

Tom Snell It takes all sorts. On the unusual occasions when I use MS Excel, this detail is among several habits that make me especially glad to be back in Stata. Attempts to read my mind are like some irritatingly yapping puppy that jumps up at you.

Still, if StataCorp did this I imagine it would be entirely optional.

Did you know that you can click on variable names in the Variables window?

[Tom Snell]

A feature I would find incredibly useful would be auto-complete suggestions for existing variables names within the command window and do-file editor. Similar to the way in which Excel shows a list of matching named ranges when you type the first few letters of an existing range.

[Nigel Moore]

I'm sure that there's a 'good reason' for the arcane choice of units in graphs. I'm equally sure that there are many users that would like to keep it 'just so'.

But for those of us publishing in the scientific literature, where line art requirements are dictated in metric units and point sizes, inches and 'teeny tiny' are not really helpful.

In deference to those who prefer it 'just so', it would be nice to at least have a preference option for metric/points.

[Weiwen Ng]

In the absence of Stata buying MPlus, I would like to see some additional postestimation statistics added for latent class/profile methods. Normalized entropy and sample size-adjusted BIC would be convenience features. You can program SSBIC quite easily, discussed more below. There was some recent discussion on how to do entropy as well.

I would particularly like to see an implementation of the Lo-Mendell-Rubin adjusted likelihood ratio test. This compares a model with K classes with a model with K-1 classes; the difference in -2*log likelihood does not follow the usual chi square distribution for reasons I don't understand but the linked article explains. Then, automating the bootstrapped LR test described in the paper linked would be very nice. It appears that the bootstrapped LR test is the current gold standard for model selection.

That said, it appears like the adjusted BIC is also acceptable, and that's very easy to calculate. This code should do it:

webuse gsem_lca1
gsem (accident play insurance stock <- ), logit lclass(C 2)
scalar SSBIC_class_2 = -2 * e(ll) + e(rank) * ln((e(N)+2) / 24)
di SSBIC_class_2

In the above:
e(ll) is the log likelihood.
e(rank) is, I believe, the number of parameters.
e(N) is the sample size.

[Daniel Bela]

Did someone already mention (again) something like import spss and export spss?
(Or import pspp and export pspp, if that's easier to implement, as the PSPP data format documentation is freely accessible.)

If yes: bump.
If no: It would be really helpful for data exchange with non-Stata users. There are several user written commands that try to fill this gap (most notably Sergiy Radyakin's usespss and savespss), but none of them work flawlessly with modern Stata versions, or on non-Windows operating systems, or do not support conversion of characteristics, or require an instance of SPSS or Stat/Transfer installed. The current situation, if you're in need to exchange data with SPSS users, is unsatisfactory.

Regards
Bela