Number format on output tables

[Telmo Vieira]

Hi,
I am new on using STATA. I have a quite basic question.
For example, when using the command “summarize” on the resulting table the numbers (i.e. mean, standard deviation) are appearing all together, without any separator between them as for example the thousands separator. How can be defined thousands separator so numbers are easier to read?
Thanks in advance

[Carlo Lazzaro]

Telmo:
see -help format-.

[Marcos Almeida]

Carlo pointed you to the right track. It is important to get a good grasp on formatting values.

Since you said you are new to Stata, this is a toy example:

. sysuse auto
(1978 Automobile Data)

. tab foreign, su(mpg)

            |      Summary of Mileage (mpg)
   Car type |        Mean   Std. Dev.       Freq.
------------+------------------------------------
   Domestic |   19.826923   4.7432972          52
    Foreign |   24.772727   6.6111869          22
------------+------------------------------------
      Total |   21.297297   5.7855032          74

. format mpg %9.2f

. tab foreign, su(mpg)

            |      Summary of Mileage (mpg)
   Car type |        Mean   Std. Dev.       Freq.
------------+------------------------------------
   Domestic |       19.83        4.74          52
    Foreign |       24.77        6.61          22
------------+------------------------------------
      Total |       21.30        5.79          74

*/ To get commas as a separator for thousands, you may type (here, we created a variable for that:

. gen mpg1000 = mpg*1000

. tab foreign, su(mpg1000)

            |         Summary of mpg1000
   Car type |        Mean   Std. Dev.       Freq.
------------+------------------------------------
   Domestic |   19826.923   4743.2972          52
    Foreign |   24772.727   6611.1869          22
------------+------------------------------------
      Total |   21297.297   5785.5032          74

. format mpg1000 %12.2fc

. tab foreign, su(mpg1000)

            |         Summary of mpg1000
   Car type |        Mean   Std. Dev.       Freq.
------------+------------------------------------
   Domestic |   19,826.92    4,743.30          52
    Foreign |   24,772.73    6,611.19          22
------------+------------------------------------
      Total |   21,297.30    5,785.50          74

Hopefully it helps.

[Telmo Vieira]

Hi,

Thanks for your note Marcos and also to Carlo Lazzaro that pointed to the right track on the topic. As I referred I just started using STATA so I am trying to have a first understanding of commands.

Best regards

Telmo Vieira