Re: [Gretl-devel] firstobs() and lastobs()

1) I agree in that firstobs() and lastobs() may restrict their checks to the current sample range. 2) With respect to comments from Jack and Sven, I agree with Sven in that normally if you work with time series you will have contiguous data. There is no need to check for missing data inside your current sample, because what if you have any? gretl will manage this observation as an NA and you will see the effect in your results, or maybe you will obtain an error in your subsequent calculations and you will have the oportunity to have that into account. 3) But I think we should have a lot of care with backward incompatible changes. I found in some cases that my old (working) scripts does not work now, and in such a case you have to loose a lot of time making them to work. 4) I have been using lately cross section data (which by the way is very rare on me), and I admit the relevant command in this case is "smpl --no-missing" in my case, using the option "smpl --no-missing list_of variables" was very useful. -- Ignacio Diaz-Emparanza DEPARTAMENTO DE ECONOMÍA APLICADA III (ECONOMETRÍA Y ESTADÍSTICA) UPV/EHU Avda. Lehendakari Aguirre, 83 | 48015 BILBAO T.: +34 946013732 | F.: +34 946013754 www.ea3.ehu.es