We have the very nice stack() function, that helps you turn a list of series into a single panel series. Unless I'm missing something, I don't think we have the opposite function, that is a function turning a panel series into a multi-column object. So, I ended up writing this: <hansl> set verbose off function matrix unstack(series x, series names) errorif($datatype != 3, "This function needs panel data") scalar N = $nobs / $pd set skip_missing off matrix mat = mshape({x}, $pd, N) strings lab0 = strvals(names) strings lab1 = array(N) ndx = uniq(names) # ordering could be garbled loop i = 1 .. N j = ndx[i] lab1[i] = fixname(lab0[j]) endloop cnameset(mat, lab1) return mat end function ### ### example ### open grunfeld.gdt matrix mat = unstack(invest, firmname) # save as a dataset and reopen it y0 = sprintf("%d", min(year)) fname = &quot;(a)dotdir/tmp.gdt&quot; store "@fname" --matrix=mat open "@fname" --preserve setobs 1 @y0 </hansl> My question is: is there a simpler way to accomplish the above? And if there isn't, would it be worthwhile to add this function to the extra package? ------------------------------------------------------- Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali (DiSES) Università Politecnica delle Marche (formerly known as Università di Ancona) r.lucchetti(a)univpm.it http://www2.econ.univpm.it/servizi/hpp/lucchetti -------------------------------------------------------