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st: RE: Using "forvalues" vs. old "for"


From   "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   st: RE: Using "forvalues" vs. old "for"
Date   Mon, 30 Jun 2003 14:03:48 +0100

[email protected]
 
> I am running into problems when I try to "nest-loop"  using 
> the old "for"
> and, reluctantly, the new  "forvalues".   
> 
> My aim is to have the following tabulation:
> 
> for Y in num 1/6: for X in num 1/6: ta vnum mXachieved if site==Y &
> mvvdate~=., row \  ta vnum mXachieved  if site==Y, row 
> 
> I get an error message I guess because the inside loop will 
> only execute the
> first tabulation, comes to the second and can not find 
> "mXachieved"!!
> 
> 
> If the command is modified to read:  
> 
> for Y in num 1/6: for X in num 1/6: ta vnum mXachieved if site==Y &
> mvvdate~=., row \  for X in num 1/6: ta vnum mXachieved  if 
> site==Y, row 
> 
> That yields the exact tabulation to breaking-up  the loop 
> into two separate
> processes as follows:
> 
> for Y in num 1/6: for X in num 1/6: ta vnum mXachieved if site==Y &
> mvvdate~=., row 
> for Y in num 1/6: for X in num 1/6: ta vnum mXachieved  if 
> site==Y, row 
> 
> 
> I tried to use the new "forvalues" as follows:
> 
> forvalues Y = 1(1)6 {
> 	2.	forvalues X = 1(1)6 {
> 			2.	ta vnum mXachieved if site==Y 
> & mvvdate~=.,
> row  
> 			3.	ta vnum mXachieved if site==Y, row }
> 	}
> 
> I get an error message  telling me:
> 
> unrecognised command:  2. invalid command name
> r(199);

The way to do this with two -forvalues- loops is 

forval Y = 1/6 { 
	forval X = 1/6 { 
		ta vnum m`X'achieved if site==`Y' & mvvdate <., row 
		ta vnum m`X'achieved if site==`Y', row 
	}
}

You don't need the line numbers. Also,  
your syntax was wrong because you have not 
used references to X and Y correctly within each 
loop. You must refer to local macro X as `X' etc. 
Incidentally, I changed the inequality 

	mvvdate ~= . 

to 

	mvdate < . 

In Stata 7, the two are equivalent. In Stata 8, they 
are not, but the second is usually closer to what 
you want. In any case, you save a keystroke every time 
you use the second way. 

There was a tutorial on -forvalues- and -foreach- 
in SJ 2(2), 202-222 (2002) and a sequel in 
SJ 3(2), 185--202 (2003). The gist of the first 
is accessible at 
http://www.stata.com/support/meeting/8uk/fortitude.pdf

Nick 
[email protected] 

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