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STACK procedure

Combines several data sets by “stacking” the corresponding vectors (R.W. Payne).

Option

DATASET = factor Factor to indicate the data set to which each unit originally belonged

Parameters

STACKEDVECTOR = variates, factors or texts New vectors combining the corresponding members of the data sets specified by parameter V1, or parameters V1V100
V1 = pointers, variates, factors, texts or scalars Pointers defining (all) the components to be stacked into each STACKEDVECTOR, or contents of the first data set
V2V100 = variates, factors, texts or scalars Data sets 2 – 100
FREPRESENTATION = string token How to match the values of factors (levels, labels, ordinals, renumbered); default leve

Description

STACK allows you to combine vectors (variates, factors or texts) from several data sets into a single data set. Each vector in the new data set is formed by “stacking” the corresponding vectors from the original data sets. So, the new vector first has all the units from the first data set, then those from the second data set, and so on.

The identifiers of the new vectors are specified by the first parameter, STACKEDVECTOR. The original vectors of up to 100 data sets can be specified one data set at a time using the subsequent parameters: V1, V2, … V100. Alternatively, V1 can specify a list of pointers, each one containing all the vectors that are to be stacked together to form the equivalent STACKEDVECTOR (allowing vectors from more than 100 data sets to be specified). So, these two statements would be equivalent

STACK [DATASET=Month] Rainfall,Temperature;\

  V1=MarchRain,MarchTemp; V2=AprilRain,AprilTemp

and

STACK [DATASET=Month] Rainfall,Temperature;\

  V1=!p(MarchRain,AprilRain),!p(MarchTemp,AprilTemp)

The vectors in each data set must generally all be of the same length. The exception is that you can specify a scalar instead of a variate of identical values (the number of values is then deduced from the lengths of the corresponding vectors of the other data sets). Likewise you can specify a single-valued text instead of a text with duplicates of that value, and either a scalar or a single-valued text instead of a factor with the same level or label duplicated throughout.

The FREPRESENTATION option indicates how the levels are to be matched amongst factors. If this is set to labels and the levels of the original factors are compatible (that is if each label corresponds to the same level in all the original factors), then the level definitions are transferred to the new factor; if not, the levels are defined to be the default values 1, 2… and a warning is printed by the APPEND procedure which is called by STACK. Similarly, with the default setting levels, the labels are retained if they are compatible, but no warning is printed if they are not. For the ordinals setting, the levels of all the factors are taken as the ordinal values 1, 2… (and no labels are defined). Finally, the renumbered setting assumes that the original factors all have independent sets of levels, and renumbers these from one upwards for the first factor, from number of levels of the first factor plus one upwards for the second factor, and so on; the new factor will thus have a different level for every level of the original factors.

The DATASET option allows a factor to be formed indicating the number if the data set to which each unit of the stacked vectors originally belonged. This factor could be used in the DATASET parameter of the UNSTACK procedure subsequently to recover the original vectors.

Option: DATASET.

Parameter: STACKEDVECTOR, V1, V2, … V100, FREPRESENTATION.

Method

The vectors are stacked together using the APPEND procedure.

Action with RESTRICT

Any restrictions on the vectors are ignored.

See also

Directive: EQUATE.
Procedures: APPEND, JOIN, RESHAPE, UNSTACK, VEQUATE.
Commands for: Calculations and manipulation.

Example

CAPTION  'STACK example'; STYLE=meta
VARIATE  [NVALUES=31] MarchRain,MarchTemp
READ     MarchRain,MarchTemp
  2.7 11.7  2.9  7.6  1.7  8.0  4.2  9.4  4.1  3.7
  0.2 11.4  2.5  6.3  3.0 11.9  0.3  4.5  0.6 10.4
  3.0 11.3  0.3  7.3  4.2 12.0  2.5 10.0  3.9  9.0
  1.2  4.6  1.4  5.7  3.7 11.8  2.9 11.9  2.7 10.4
  0.9  3.0  4.7 10.4  3.5  6.0  3.4  9.2  3.3  5.6
  4.8  7.5  1.9 11.7  0.9 10.3  1.1  3.4  0.2  5.7
  1.0  4.1  :
VARIATE  [NVALUES=30] AprilRain,AprilTemp
READ     AprilRain,AprilTemp
  0.1  6.0  3.2 11.0  0.6  4.4  1.2 11.2  1.7  9.1
  1.4  3.6  3.1  8.2  3.0  9.7  0.9  7.3  1.8  3.6
  3.7 12.5  3.9  7.9  1.4  9.3  4.6 12.2  0.8  4.6
  1.9  5.8  3.1  8.8  3.6 11.5  2.8  8.4  2.8 11.7
  0.3  6.1  4.5  4.5  4.2  6.2  1.6 12.5  2.7  5.8
  2.7  5.5  2.7  9.6  1.8  5.8  0.4  9.1  0.8  3.6 :
STACK    [DATASET=Month] Rainfall,Temperature;\
         V1=MarchRain,MarchTemp; V2=AprilRain,AprilTemp
FACTOR   [MODIFY=yes; LABELS=!t(March,April)] Month
PRINT    Month,Rainfall,Temperature; DECIMALS=0,2(1)
Updated on January 12, 2022

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