"undue" sort command

[Sandra Bloem]

Hi there,

I was wondering if it's possible to go back to the original listing of a dataset after using the -sort- command.

For example:

clear all
webuse fullauto
sort price

When you first open the dataset and browse, image 1 displays the first 5 observations. After using the command -sort price-, the first 5 observations become those depicted in image 2. My question is if there is a command that brings you back to image 1 after using that sort command. Or should I just run my do-file again, use preserve and restore or anything of that sort?

Thank you in advance (:

Image 1

Image 2

[Andrew Musau]

Usually you will have an id and/or time variable that defines a particular sort order. In your example, that would be

sort make model

Otherwise,

gen order=_n
*DO SOMETHING
sort order

[Sandra Bloem]

Andrew Musau

I had not thought of that, thank you! Have a blessed day (:

[Nick Cox]

In general, you can get back to the original sort order if and only if it is defined by particular variables, or the original dataset. There isn't an "undo the last sort" as such.

[Sandra Bloem]

Nick Cox

Okay, thank you for the explanation (: Have a great day