Series transformation problem
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:56 pm
We recently uncovered an error in our Eviews code that might point to a possible bug in both Eviews 6 and 7. Our program reads in and manipulates population data, with series names such as POPTX (population in Texas).
After reading in the data, one of the lines in our code scales the variable using the following command:
GENR POP_TX = POP_TX/1000
You'll notice that the right-hand-side series name (incorrectly) includes an underscore ("_") whereas the original (correct) series name did not. However, for some reason Eviews allows this new series to be created from a non-existent series (the new series POP_TX is full of N/As).
In comparison, if we were to try generating a new series from a non-existent series that does not have an underscore in its name, e.g.,
GENR POP_TX = POPTEST/1000
we do receive an error message saying "POPTEST is not defined."
So, why the difference? Is "POP_" a reserved name in Eviews or is this some sort of bug?
After reading in the data, one of the lines in our code scales the variable using the following command:
GENR POP_TX = POP_TX/1000
You'll notice that the right-hand-side series name (incorrectly) includes an underscore ("_") whereas the original (correct) series name did not. However, for some reason Eviews allows this new series to be created from a non-existent series (the new series POP_TX is full of N/As).
In comparison, if we were to try generating a new series from a non-existent series that does not have an underscore in its name, e.g.,
GENR POP_TX = POPTEST/1000
we do receive an error message saying "POPTEST is not defined."
So, why the difference? Is "POP_" a reserved name in Eviews or is this some sort of bug?