Struggling with table

[Hans Rahr]

I would like to be able to produce a simple "Table 1" with baseline values of a couple of patient groups. That means listing a number of variables as rows with frequencies and percentages, divided into two columns by a group variable. But I am struggling.

Why doesn't the following code work?

• If run 'as is', it will not work. I receive an error message
• If I leave out one of the 'statistic' options (no matter which) within the loop, the aggregated table will show, provided that no 'statistics' options are present in the first tabulation (cprSex). Sometimes the cprSex variable will be included in the table, but not always

What is wrong? I have tried to browse through the many pages of 'table help', but can't figure it out.
Thanks for any help.

local predAlle_tab "cprSex BMIkat genstande arvelighed aldersGrp rygning asa performance CCIkat lokalisationRectum mdt_konf afdnummerVol region"
    

quietly table cprSex OverTx, statistic(freq) statistic(perc, across(OverTx))

foreach var in `predAlle_tab' {
    quietly table `var' OverTx, statistic(freq) statistic(perc, across(OverTx)) append
    }
    
collect layout (`predAlle_tab') (OverTx)

[Wei Hai Deng]

Check out dtable in Stata 18. It should have all of what you want to produce.

In regards to your code, you are not collecting your table results into the collect command. Collect works by storing/collecting estimation results first, and then assembling those results according to user specifications. You should check the help files for collect and also collect get if you're curious about learning to build your own table of results with the command.

For the purpose of making a table 1 descriptive table though, dtable is probably sufficient. Alternatively, try installing table1_mc from SSC in older versions of Stata.

[Jeff Pitblado (StataCorp)]

It helps when we have a dataset to go with the code.

There are 2 problems with your code.

1. You call table for the row variable cprSex twice.

2. Your layout does not contain the result dimension. After the
first call to table, use collect layout to see that the
result dimension in interacted with the row variable.

In the following I try to reproduce the spirit of your code using some
publicly available data. I changed the loop to start off with an empty
append macro, and fill it with "append" after the first call to
table. Also, following the logic of the original calls to
table, I interact the result dimension with the row
variables in the final call to collect layout.

webuse nhanes2l

unab colvar : region
unab rowvars : hsizgp rural agegrp highlead highbp

local append
foreach var of local rowvars {
    quietly ///
    table `var' `colvar', ///
        statistic(freq) ///
        statistic(percent, across(`colvar')) ///
        `append'
    collect layout
    local append append
}

collect layout ((`rowvars')#result) (`colvar')

Here is the final table.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
                            |                  Region
                            |     NE      MW       S       W    Total
----------------------------+----------------------------------------
# in household or 5 if #>=5 |
  1                         |
    Frequency               |    316     527     445     441    1,729
    Percent                 |  18.28   30.48   25.74   25.51   100.00
  2                         |
    Frequency               |    688     949     971   1,022    3,630
    Percent                 |  18.95   26.14   26.75   28.15   100.00
  3                         |
    Frequency               |    410     429     519     384    1,742
    Percent                 |  23.54   24.63   29.79   22.04   100.00
  4                         |
    Frequency               |    338     433     449     356    1,576
    Percent                 |  21.45   27.47   28.49   22.59   100.00
  5                         |
    Frequency               |    344     436     469     425    1,674
    Percent                 |  20.55   26.05   28.02   25.39   100.00
  Total                     |
    Frequency               |  2,096   2,774   2,853   2,628   10,351
    Percent                 |  20.25   26.80   27.56   25.39   100.00
Rural                       |
  Urban                     |
    Frequency               |  1,513   1,858   1,491   1,686    6,548
    Percent                 |  23.11   28.38   22.77   25.75   100.00
  Rural                     |
    Frequency               |    583     916   1,362     942    3,803
    Percent                 |  15.33   24.09   35.81   24.77   100.00
  Total                     |
    Frequency               |  2,096   2,774   2,853   2,628   10,351
    Percent                 |  20.25   26.80   27.56   25.39   100.00
Age group                   |
  20–29                     |
    Frequency               |    444     684     589     603    2,320
    Percent                 |  19.14   29.48   25.39   25.99   100.00
  30–39                     |
    Frequency               |    334     433     443     412    1,622
    Percent                 |  20.59   26.70   27.31   25.40   100.00
  40–49                     |
    Frequency               |    246     376     365     285    1,272
    Percent                 |  19.34   29.56   28.69   22.41   100.00
  50–59                     |
    Frequency               |    292     307     385     307    1,291
    Percent                 |  22.62   23.78   29.82   23.78   100.00
  60–69                     |
    Frequency               |    587     721     811     741    2,860
    Percent                 |  20.52   25.21   28.36   25.91   100.00
  70+                       |
    Frequency               |    193     253     260     280      986
    Percent                 |  19.57   25.66   26.37   28.40   100.00
  Total                     |
    Frequency               |  2,096   2,774   2,853   2,628   10,351
    Percent                 |  20.25   26.80   27.56   25.39   100.00
High lead level             |
  lead<25                   |
    Frequency               |    932   1,226   1,302   1,195    4,655
    Percent                 |  20.02   26.34   27.97   25.67   100.00
  lead>=25                  |
    Frequency               |     67      93      62      71      293
    Percent                 |  22.87   31.74   21.16   24.23   100.00
  Total                     |
    Frequency               |    999   1,319   1,364   1,266    4,948
    Percent                 |  20.19   26.66   27.57   25.59   100.00
High blood pressure         |
  0                         |
    Frequency               |  1,172   1,664   1,636   1,503    5,975
    Percent                 |  19.62   27.85   27.38   25.15   100.00
  1                         |
    Frequency               |    924   1,110   1,217   1,125    4,376
    Percent                 |  21.12   25.37   27.81   25.71   100.00
  Total                     |
    Frequency               |  2,096   2,774   2,853   2,628   10,351
    Percent                 |  20.25   26.80   27.56   25.39   100.00
---------------------------------------------------------------------