[EpiData-list] Display format

[epidata-list at lists.umanitoba.ca]

This is a question/comment for the folk at EpiData.

Much of the data here is entered in EpiData and then analysed in 
Stata.  I've noticed that in Stata the display format for a field is the 
same as the data entry format in EpiData.   For example if the field 
"smoke" (0=no, 1=yes) has the field type set to #  in EpiData, in Stata the 
display format is %1.0f.  This can cause confusion with Stata commands that 
base the display format of their output on the display format of the field, 
e.g. the Stata command "ci".
If I type the following into Stata:
ci smoke, binomial
The output I get looks like this:
     Variable |        Obs        Mean    Std. Err.       [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------
          sex |         44           0           0               0           0
because the mean, SE, and CI have been rounded to the nearest integer.

Is it necessary for the output/exported format of fields to be the same as 
the data entry format?  Can numeric fields be exported with a format of at 
least 9.0g?

Cheers,
Suzanna

Suzanna Vidmar
Research Fellow

Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit
Royal Children's Hospital
Flemington Rd
Parkville Victoria 3052

telephone: +61 3 9345 6372
facsimile: +61 3 9345 6000