Monday, July 30, 2012

The Joy of Logic - Stata logical operators


* Both Stata and R handle logical operators in a similar fassion

* There are two types of operators & (and) and | (or)

if (1==2 & 2==2) di "both 1 = 2 and 2 = 2"
* This message is not displayed

if (1==2 | 2==2) di "either 1 = 2 or 2 = 2 (obviously 2==2)"

* Operators can easy switch values
if !(1==2 | 2==2) di "neither 1 = 2 nor 2 = 2"
  * Is not displayed

* You might be wondering what the value of these operators are

di "True: " 1==1 ", False: " 3==2

* Logical operators can also take order of operations.

* Thus

if (1==1|2==3)|(3==3&3==2) di "Will display because either 1==1 or 2==3 (obviously 1==1) or 3==3 and 3==2 (and 3==3)"
if (1==1|2==3|3==3)&(3==2) di "Will not display because either 1==1, 2==3, or 3==3 (we know 1==1, and 3==3) but 3 does not equal 2."

* Order of operations matters.

* Any logical operator combination can be specified two ways.
if (1==1|2==3) di "Straightforward method"
if !(1!=1&2!=3) di "Alternative display (more clunky)"

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