I am trying to run a table with row variable bpl, column variable Poverty, and selection filters statefip(36), countyfip(005). Error message says: “Warning: a table is not displayed because the total number of cells would have exceeded the maximum allowed (=8000). Row variable = bpl Column variable = poverty.” Please advise.
The program is unable to create this large of a table. BPL details over 500 different codes for birthplaces of individuals. However, the main issue is when POVERTY is added as the column variable. The variable description states that it “expresses each family’s total income for the previous year as a percentage of the poverty thresholds”. Since household income is a continuous variable, there are almost as many values for POVERTY as there are households in the sample, making generating this table unwieldy for the program.
There are several possible solutions to this issue depending on what you want to measure. If you want to see the number of households below and above the poverty line, you can recode the poverty variable. You will want to run your table with poverty(r: 0-100 “Below” ; 101-* “Above”) in the column field. This will divide households into those who are below (or at 100% of) the poverty line and those who are above it (greater than 100% of the poverty line). The syntax is detailed further on the online guide for the SDA tool. You will also want to add an additional filter to exclude cases where POVERTY = 000 since this these observations are not applicable as detailed in the codes tab for the variable.
You might also find this video tutorial helpful if you get stuck.
Thank you so much, Ivan. Much appreciated.