Dear Gijs,
The solution is probably not where you are looking for it: simply, you
are storing "start" as a local macro (-local start ...- ) and then refer
to it as if it were a global macro (-forvalues i = $start/8- instead of
-forvalues i = `start'/8-). Nothing specific to -forvalues- in fact.
Best wishes
Philippe
>From Gijs Dekkers <[email protected]>
>To [email protected]
>Subject st: variable starting point in 'forvalues'
>Date Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:32:15 +0200
>Dear all,
>
>This novice Stata-user is wondering whether or not he can have a
'forvalues'-do loop with a variable starting point.
>
>Consider the following example, which works fine:
>******************
>example 1
>******************
>
>global cntryno1 = 4
>
>if ($cntryno1==2 | $cntryno1==13) {
>local waveno 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
>}
>else {
>if ($cntryno1==14) {
>local waveno 3 4 5 6 7 8
>}
>else {
>if ($cntryno1==15) {
>local waveno 4 5 6 7 8
>}
>else local waveno 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
>}
>}
>
>foreach i of local waveno {
>ALL KINDS OF COMMANDS
>}
>
>Basically, this little program applies 'all kinds of commands' for a
local macro i, which goes from 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 (depending on cntryno1)
up to 8. It seems to work fine, which could be expected, for I more or
less copied it from prof. Baum's fine lecture "a little bit of Stata
progamming...'.
>
>'Problem solved', you might say 'let's get back to work'. However,
curious as I am, and given that the above vectors 'waveno' share most
figures, I want to know whether I could also have used a 'forvalues'-do
loop.
>
>Consider the second example, which does NOT work.
>******************
>example 2
>******************
>* start
>if ($cntryno1==2 | $cntryno1==13) {
>local start 2
>}
>else {
>if ($cntryno1==14) {
>local start 3
>}
>else {
>if ($cntryno1==15) {
>local start 4
>}
>else local start 1
>}
>}
>
>* the start-macro here does only contain the starting value of the
vector 'waveno' and the other integers up to 8 come from the
'forvalues'-do loop.
>
>forvalues i = $start/8 {
>use d$cntryno1`i'.dta, clear
>ALL KINDS OF COMMANDS
>}
>
>The macro 'start' is not accepted, and Stata returns an error code
'invalid syntax'. (How) can I use the macro 'start' in a 'forvalues'
do-loop?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Gijs
>
>--
>dr. Gijs Dekkers
>Federal Planning Bureau
>Kunstlaan 47-49
>1000 Brussels, Belgium
>++32/(0)2/5077413
>fax 7373 [email protected], [email protected]
>
>
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