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st: RE: Use of -exit- within -foreach- or -forvalues-


From   "Scott Merryman" <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   st: RE: Use of -exit- within -foreach- or -forvalues-
Date   Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:28:33 -0600

If you add a return code, then the code will stop within the loop:


prog foo3
   local num 1 2 3
   foreach n of local num {
	if "`n'"=="2" {
           di "`n' => exit"
           exit 119
        }
   di "`n'"
   mac shift
   }
 di "not to be reached"
end

. discard

. foo3
1
2 => exit
r(119);


prog foo4
         local list 1 2 3
         foreach l of local list {
                 di "`l'"
                 exit 119
         }
         di "howdy"
end


. foo4
1
r(119);

Scott
  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:owner-
> [email protected]] On Behalf Of Ben Jann
> Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 3:18 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: st: Use of -exit- within -foreach- or -forvalues-
> 
> Hi, I always thought that using -exit- within a -program-
> would terminate the program no matter what. However, I
> now used -exit- within a -foreach- loop and -exit- did
> not seem to have any effect. Here is an example:
> 
> <cut>
> . prog test1
>   1.         local num 1 2 3
>   2.         foreach n of local num {
>   3.                 if "`n'"=="2" {
>   4.                         di "`n' => exit"
>   5.                         exit
>   6.                 }
>   7.                 di "`n'"
>   8.                 mac shift
>   9.         }
>  10.         di "not to be reached"
>  11. end
> 
> . test1
> 1
> 2 => exit
> 3
> not to be reached
> <cut>
> 
> Neither the -foreach- loop, nor the program is
> terminated. This is not what I expected and I cannot
> find anything about it in the documentation.
> Furthermore, note that -exit- works as expected within
> a -while- loop (this is documented in [P] while):
> 
> <cut>
> . prog test2
>   1.         local num 1 2 3
>   2.         tokenize "`num'"
>   3.         while "`1'"!="" {
>   4.                 if "`1'"=="2" {
>   5.                         di "`1' => exit"
>   6.                         exit
>   7.                 }
>   8.                 di "`1'"
>   9.                 mac shift
>  10.         }
>  11.         di "not to be reached"
>  12. end
> 
> . test2
> 1
> 2 => exit
> <cut>
> 
> I checked the Statalist Archive and found a similar
> thread, see
> 
>  http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2005-11/msg00809.html
> 
> Stephen Jenkins ([email protected]) reported a
> problem with -exit- within a -forvalues- loop and
> Ken Higbee ([email protected]) gave an answer. However,
> Ken's answer does appear incorrect (or at least
> incomplete) to me. Stephen's code looked something
> like
> 
> 	forval i = ... {
>  		...
> 		if mod(...) == 0 {
> 			...
> 			exit
> 		}
> 	}
> 
> and part of Ken's answer was:
> 
> "-exit- without a return code (or in other words,
> with a zero return code) pops you out of the current
> process.  The -if mod(...) == 0 { ... }- block is
> considered a process, so the -exit- is only popping
> you up out of that -if- block of code, and since the
> return code is zero, there is no error and the -forval-
> loop continues on its merry way."
> 
> However, -exit- does not terminate the loop even if
> not included in an -if- block:
> 
> <cut>
> . prog test
>   1.         local list 1 2 3
>   2.         foreach l of local list {
>   3.                 di "`l'"
>   4.                 exit
>   5.         }
>   6.         di "howdy"
>   7. end
> 
> . test
> 1
> 2
> 3
> <cut>
> 
> Furthermore note that the -display- command after the
> loop is not executed. So -exit- does not terminate
> the loop but it terminates the program? Huh?
> 
> Although it is not much of a problem to me that -exit-
> does not work within -foreach- (I just use -while-
> instead of -foreach-), I'd like make the following
> points:
> 
> - It is very irritating that -exit- has a different
>   effect in a -while- loop than in a -foreach- or
>   -forvalues- loop. One would not expect that and it
>   is likely to cause confusion. Documentation should
>   say something about it (especially since use of -exit-
>   is documented for -while-).
> 
> - It is still unclear to me what is going on. Why does
>   -exit- not terminate the program if used in a
>   -foreach- loop? Can anyone clarify? And what exactly
>   is a "process" in [P] exit?
> 
> - Ken's advice was to use -continue, break- ("Okay, so
>   what should you do?  Use the -continue, break- command
>   to exit out of the -forval- loop; see '[P] continue'").
>   However, the reason for using -exit- is to terminate
>   the whole -program- (also in Stephen's case).
> 
> ben
> 


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