Stata users, I am stuck with a simple problem here.
I have variables called XPRI1984 XPRI1986 XPRI1988 XPRI1990, and so on. I want to ask stata to create a variable that computes a three-year difference (I count the first year as well) ie:
gen XPRI3yr1986=XPRI1986-XPRI1984
gen XPRI3yr1988=XPRI1988-XPRI1986
and so on.
I want to put that in a loop and tried the following:
local z "1986 1988 1990"
foreach x of local z{
gen XPRI3yr`x'=(XPRI`x'-XPRI`x'-2)
}
This is the bit I am stuck with. Is there a way of asking Stata to read the values of the variables that represent the previous two years values, i.e. XPRI`x'-2?
I know what I have done above is incorect and think the solution is to ask stata to read the last four digits of the variable name, and use it as a numeric variable and hence the local will turn numeric,so that one can manipulate it in the way I did in my loop. I am not sure how to do that though. Please help
Thanks in advance.
Dev
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