droping variables that have "0" for values

droping variables that have "0" for values

by Laura Koth -

Hi,

I have a very large dataset (26,000 variables in columns) and 300 subjects (in rows) and I need to create a new file that drops any variable in which all of the values are "0" for every subject.

is there a way to do this in stata?

drop if varname == 0

something like this?

Re: droping variables that have "0" for values

by Kristen - 

You can write a simple function to delete all variables that sum to 0. Here is an example I wrote using nhanes data set (.do file is attached):


webuse nhanes2, clear
gen test=0
ds
local varlist `r(varlist)'
display "`varlist'"

 foreach var of local varlist {
        sum `var',  meanonly
        if r(mean)==0 {
                drop `var'
         }
 }