Compare Commands That Control The Table Format

\ <fw> <dp> <pl> <tm> <bm> <tw>

This is the general formatting command, where <fw> <dp> <pl> <tm> <bm> and <tw> all are numbers. This is an line to set the field width of each printed number to <fw>, the number of decimal places to be printed to <dp>, the page length to <pl> lines, the top margin to <tm> lines, the bottom margin to <bm> lines, and the width of the titles to <tw>. The last three may be omitted. The default values are 7, 1, 60, 3, 9, and 32; these will be in effect if this command is omitted. Note that the title width will establish the column width for the first row of a spreadsheet when the \xls command is employed.

\decs <number>

This command changes only the number of decimal places printed, and so is simpler to use than the general formatting command described above. Note that this command overrides the second argument of the general formatting command. Note also that this setting controls the precision when the \xls option is employed.

\gd <number>
\growthdecs <number>
Use this command to override the number of decimal points specified in the \fw command, so that growth rates have their own number of decimal points displayed. For example, you may want level variables to have one decimal point, but growth rates to have three. In this case, issue the command “\gd 3”.
\growthwidth (gw) <number>

This command allows a different width for the growth rate columns than for the other columns. Note that the width must be at least as big as the date expression (“2000-2009”) plus 1, so that 10 would be the smallest width allowed. This feature is handy when printing a lot of growth rates and you need to conserve space.

\field <number>

This command can be used to specify the column width of the data in the table. Give the column width as the argument. Note that this overrides the first argument in the general formatting command.

\pw <number>
\pagewidth <number>
Use this command to set the page width of the table to something other than the default of 132. This controls how the title is centered and where the page numbers will be printed. You may create a table that is wider than this page width, put the page number will not be at the right margin of the data.
\yf
\yearformat
This command lets you specify how you want dates printed. “\yf 4” means to make all dates with four digits. “\yf 2” means to print all dates with two digits; use of two-digit dates is not recommended. Finally “\yf m” means “mixed”, i.e., to print levels as four-digit dates and growth rates as two-digit dates. Note that mixed format is the default if none is specified.
\pp
\pageprefix
The default leading text for page numbers is “Page “. If you would like to change it to something like “F -”, give the command “\pp F -”
\under <character>

This command specifies the underlining character for dates. For example, for single-line underlining, give the command “\under -”. For double-line underlining, give the command “\under =”. Any character is legal for underlining except ‘n’, which turns off the feature.

\pages <on|off>

This command is used to turn page numbering on or off.

\bz <y|n>
\blankzeroes <y|n>
This command allows you to print zeroes as blank fields. This sometimes makes a table less busy and easier to read. The default is ‘n’, which means that zeroes will be printed. To enable this option, include “\bz y” in the stub file.
\nzr
\nozerorows
The idea for this command is similar to the previous one. Sometimes we want to avoid the clutter of many zeros. Even with zero fields blank, we do not want to waste paper by printing out blank space. After issuing this command in the stub file, series that entirely are zero will be skipped. In this way, you can create a stub file for, say, all 360 sectors of the Iliad model for Producers’ Durable Equipment and be confident that only the relevant PDE sectors will show up in the table.
\thresh <number>
\threshhold <number>
This is one more wrinkle on the same general idea. If you not only want to avoid looking at zeroes but also want to avoid looking at tiny numbers, then you can set a threshhold value. Any lines of data with no numbers above this threshhold then will not be printed.
\commas <on | off>

Giving this command with the “on” argument, or with no argument, tells Compare to print numbers with commas separating thousands, millions, etc. It takes effect at the point in the table where the \comma command is given. “\comma off” turns commas back off again. This command helps with the formatting of very large numbers. However, remember that Compare and G7 work in single-precision floating point arithmetic. Therefore, only about seven digits are significant.

\sp <number>
\spacing <number>
This command changes the default spacing between variables or expressions in the table. The notation is similar to that of word processors, where “1” means single spacing. “2” means to insert one blank line between variables or expressions. If you are comparing multiple banks or simulations, the spaces are not inserted between each simulation, but instead only between separate variables. The purpose of this command is to allow space for notes in “scratch” tables, or to make lines of the table stand out when doing multiple simulations.
\missing <text>

This command supplies text to be printed in the table for missing values of variables, or for expressions that default to missing values, because they are based on variables which have missing data. For example: “\miss N/A”.