EViews.com

I have a dated, quaterly workfile. I want to use the "smpl" command to make my sample start at the last non-missing observation of a variable x.

Using @ilast(x) gives me the observation ID, rather than the date of the observation. Typing "smpl @ilast(x) @end" therefore yields an "illegal date" error message.

Is there a simple way to tell eviews to begin the sample at the last known value of variable x?

You can use @otod to convert the observation ID into a date string. You can then put that string into the sample statement.

If I type smpl @otod(@ilast(x)) 2010Q4, I still get the illegal date message!