Thanks, Nicholas, for the tip. That did get past that error! A few new things have happened that are interesting. YourCast seems to crash without covariates, which I was able to debug (details below). Unfortunately, when I add covariates, I still get a strange error. I'm hoping you or someone else might have seen this before too, and got past it. I'll document this in reverse order-first, the problem after adding a covariate (arbitrarily defined "time", equal to year-30---as in the example in the YourCast vignette). Second, for the record, I've described the problem I generated when YourCast did not have a covariate (might be a bug in the way the lists containing the data are named when there is only one covariate). ____YourCast returns an error in digitpull().____ I can't tell what is generating this error. I've tried changing the number of digits in the age group and country codes, but to no avail so far. + year.var=TRUE,# year is a column + tag="mxmale",# file names begin with mxmale + index.code="gggaaa",# 3-digit region and 3-digit age + sample.frame=c(1970,2011,2012,2036),# start,end of model yrs and forecast + ) Loading cross section files and checking for errors... ...Finished Total number of cross sections: 24 + dataobj=dta,# name of yourprep data + model="LC",# options:bayes,map,ols,poisson,lc + sample.frame=c(1970,2011,2012,2036),# provide sample frame from yourprep step + ) Creating formulas for all cross-sections... Adding time to the covariate list... Applying formulas to data in each cross-section... Running model frames for data matrices... Building the covariates list... Standardizing covariates... Constructing the list of dependent variables... Creating the in-sample and out-sample periods for covariates... Creating lists for dependent variable,in-sample and out-sample... Saving preprocessing in the file...c:/research/gbdcast/_yourcast/data/yourcast.savetmp The size of yourcast.savetmp is = 30434 Using LC model Error in digitpull(cs.vec, digit.age.begin, digit.age.end) : narrowest element in v not as wide as stopdig in proc digitpull() Data is inconsistent. Error in get("lst.output", envir = ewho) : object 'lst.output' not found Some things that might be helpful (?). I can't find cs.vec in any of the environments available after debugger(). Browse[1]> digit.first digit.first 0 Browse[1]> age.digits age.digits 3 Browse[1]> ewho$age.vec [1] "000" "001" "005" "010" "015" "020" "025" "030" "035" "040" "045" "050" [13] "055" "060" "065" "070" "075" "080" "085" "090" "095" "100" "105" "110" ____YourCast seems to crash without covariates.____ To my eyes, it appears that yourcast is calling the matrix column with the dependent variable, "allcause", but that the matrix is not labeled this way when it is the only variable. This happened until I added a covariate to the input data (i.e., a new column in the text files read by yourprep). > wd<-"c:/research/gbdcast/_yourcast/data/"# update working directory > setwd(wd) + year.var=TRUE,# year is a column + tag="mxmale",# file names begin with mxmale + index.code="gggaaa",# 3-digit region and 3-digit age + G.names="isonames.txt",# file containing country abbvs + sample.frame=c(1970,2011,2012,2036),# start,end of model yrs and forecast + # adjacency="adjacency.txt",# file containing WHO adjacency info + verbose=TRUE,# do not suppress output + ) Loading cross section files and checking for errors... mxmale004000.txt mxmale004001.txt .[etc, until] mxmale004110.txt Loading auxiliary files... isonames.txt ...Finished Total number of cross sections: 24 Error in mat[, dth] : subscript out of bounds Message: Error in mat[, dth] : subscript out of bounds Available environments had calls: 1: yourcast(formula = log(allcauses) ~ index, dataobj = dta, model = "LC", sam 2: input.to.model(datamat = dataobj$data, ff = formula, all.pow = low.pow, sam 3: build.covs.depvar.lst(datamat, ff, all.pow, sample.frame, standard, verbose 4: data.after.first.obv(datamat, ff) 5: lapply(datamat, FUN = "first.obvy", dth, pop) 6: FUN(X[[1]], ...) Enter an environment number, or 0 to exit Selection: 6 Browsing in the environment with call: FUN(X[[1]], ...) Called from: debugger.look(ind) Browse[1]> ls() [1] "dth" "mat" "pop" "rnm" Browse[1]> dth [1] "allcauses" Browse[1]> mat mat 0040001970 0.34498817 0040001971 0.33458412 0040001972 0.32445580 0040001973 0.31145978 0040001974 0.29705149 . [ and so on, until .] 0040002010 0.07250808 0040002011 0.06872911 0040002012 NA 0040002013 NA 0040002014 NA . [ etc, etc, until.] 0040002035 NA 0040002036 NA This error was fixed by adding a covariate to the source data, which resulting in the appropriate naming of the columns in the matrix "mat", e.g.: $`004000` allcause time 1970 0.34498817 1940 1971 0.33458412 1941 ...[etc] And then mat[,dth] pulls from the correct column. From: Nicholas Martinez [mailto:martinez.nicholas@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 10:24 PM To: Ethan Sharygin Cc: yourcast(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu Subject: Re: [yourcast] Error in yourcast step after successful yourprep. Ethan, I had the same problem a couple of years ago.  You have to pass the the frame you set in your.prep into the your.cast sample.frame. Try this. ylc <- yourcast(formula=log(allcauses)~index, dataobj=dta, model="LC", sample.frame=c(1970,2011,2012,2036)) Hope that works. Best, Nicholas On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 8:52 PM, Ethan Sharygin &lt;sharygin(a)uw.edu&gt; wrote: Dear yourcast users or moderator, I am unable to get yourcast to run any model with data in yourprep. I've formatted my data into text files for each cross-sectional unit, following the example in the vignette/documentation for YourCast. Here is a stripped down example for one geographic unit, 24 age groups, years 1970-2036 (non-missing data for 1970-2011). No auxiliary files are used in this example. (1) The R command and output: + year.var=TRUE,# year is a column + tag="mxmale",# file names begin with mxmale + index.code="gggaaa",# 3-digit region and 3-digit age + sample.frame=c(1970,2011,2012,2036),# start,end of model yrs and forecast + #G.names="isonames.txt",# file containing country abbvs + #adjacency="mxmale.proxim.txt",# file containing adjacency info + verbose=TRUE,# do not suppress output + ) Loading cross section files and checking for errors... mxmale004000.txt mxmale004001.txt mxmale004005.txt mxmale004010.txt mxmale004015.txt mxmale004020.txt mxmale004025.txt mxmale004030.txt mxmale004035.txt mxmale004040.txt mxmale004045.txt mxmale004050.txt mxmale004055.txt mxmale004060.txt mxmale004065.txt mxmale004070.txt mxmale004075.txt mxmale004080.txt mxmale004085.txt mxmale004090.txt mxmale004095.txt mxmale004100.txt mxmale004105.txt mxmale004110.txt ...Finished Total number of cross sections: 24 + dataobj=dta,# name of yourprep data + model="LC",# options:bayes,map,ols,poisson,lc + debug=TRUE,# add debug info to user space + ) Error in seq.default(smpvec[ind], smpvec[ln], by = 1) :   wrong sign in 'by' argument (2) an example text file (mxmale004000.txt) for one age category (age 0) for one country (004) year    allcause 1970    .3449881673 1971    .3345841169 1972    .3244557977 1973    .3114597797 1974    .2970514894 [truncated here to save space] 2010    .0725080818 2011    .0687291101 2012    NA 2013    NA 2014    NA [and so on, NA values until 2036] Any insights would be appreciated, as I cannot distinguish how my data, after yourprep, are any different from the example in the documentation. Thanks sincerely, -- Ethan Sharygin - --- yourcast mailing list served by HUIT List Address: yourcast(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.gking.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/yourcast Yourcast mailing list Yourcast(a)lists.gking.harvard.edu To unsubscribe from this list or get other information: https://lists.gking.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/yourcast