R help - May 2009 - plm: plm.data vs pdata.frame

Hello,

I am trying to use the plm package for panel econometrics. I am just
trying to get started and load my data. It seems from most of the
sample documentation that I need to use the pdata.frame function to
get my data loaded. However, even after installing the "plm" package,
my R installation cannot find the function. I am trying to follow the
example in plmEN.pdf ( cran.mirroring.de/doc/vignettes/plm/plmEN.pdf )
> library(plm)
Loading required package: kinship
Loading required package: survival
Loading required package: splines
Loading required package: nlme
Loading required package: lattice
[1] "kinship is loaded"
Loading required package: Formula
Loading required package: MASS
Loading required package: sandwich
Loading required package: zoo

Attaching package: 'zoo'


	The following object(s) are masked from package:base :

	 as.Date.numeric
> library(Ecdat)
> data(Hedonic)
> pdata.frame(Hedonic, "townid")
Error: could not find function "pdata.frame"
>
>From here, I decided to try using plm.data, which worked
> h2 <- plm.data(Hedonic, "townid")
However, doing a summary of the h2 object, it was not as in the
plmEN.pdf example, meaning it did not show any information about the
panel structure of the object.

I would appreciate some help as to getting my data into a proper
pdata.frame. Thank you,

-stephen barr
=========================================Stephen J. Barr
University of Washington
WEB: www.econsteve.com

Stephen:
> I am trying to use the plm package for panel econometrics. I am just
> trying to get started and load my data.
Look at the Journal of Statistical Software paper that introduces the 
"plm" package:
   http://www.jstatsoft.org/v27/i02/
> It seems from most of the
> sample documentation that I need to use the pdata.frame function to
> get my data loaded. However, even after installing the "plm"
package,
> my R installation cannot find the function.
pdata.frame() was removed from the package. plm.data() took over some of 
its purposes. See the paper mentioned above for more details.
> I am trying to follow the
> example in plmEN.pdf ( cran.mirroring.de/doc/vignettes/plm/plmEN.pdf )
That version is two years old, plm changed (and improved) a lot since 
them. You shouldn't use that mirror in general (unless you want to use 
tools from 2007...).

Yves & Giovanni: The latest version of plm has lost its "inst"
directory.
Hence, there is no vignette and no pointer to the JSS paper via the 
CITATION. It seems that the inst directory wasn't moved to R-Forge...

hth,
Z