Generate fake data

[amandacpac]

Hi all, I am trying to write some exam questions and would like to generate some histograms using fake data. I would like to be able to set the mean and SD for these variables. Does anyone know how to do that? I have tried

gen y = rnormal()

but that will not allow me to set the mean and SD to 100 +- 20, for example.

[Martyn Sherriff]

From help rnormal

rnormal(m, s)
       Description:  normal(m,s) (Gaussian) random variates, where m is the mean and s is the standard deviation

                     The methods for generating normal (Gaussian) random variates are taken from Knuth (1998, 122-128); Marsaglia, MacLaren, and Bray (1964); and Walker (1977).
       Domain m:     c(mindouble) to c(maxdouble)
       Domain s:     0 to c(maxdouble)
       Range:        c(mindouble) to c(maxdouble)

. set obs 100
number of observations (_N) was 0, now 100

. gen double x = rnormal(100,20)

. su x

    Variable |        Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------
           x |        100    100.3557     19.5449   46.28238   155.8972

I hope that this helps.

[amandacpac]

Oops. Not sure how I missed that! I think I must have been looking at help normal(). Thank you so much!