Stata Scalars
Scalars are a data type used for meta programming in the Stata programming language. They are more comparable to macros than any core data type within Stata. See also matrices.
Contents
Definition
To define a scalar, use the scalar define command. The define keyword can be left off.
scalar define i = 1 scalar j = 2 scalar k = "Hello, world!"
Scalar variables are accessed by their name.
generate double score = i * j
String Scalars
String scalars can hold arbitrarily long strings, and can also hold binary data.
Usage
To examine a scalar variable, try:
scalar dir i
Use scalar dir _all (or scalar list _all) to list the contents of all scalar variables.
To delete a scalar variable, try:
scalar drop i
Use scalar drop _all to delete all scalar variables.
To obtain a random, temporary name for a scalar that cannot collide with any variables or scalars defined in a dataset, try:
tempname n1 n2 count if cohort==1 scalar `n1' = r(N) count if cohort==2 scalar `n2' = r(N)