Anna-Lisa Pierre <[email protected]> wrote,
> I am trying to use the 'tempvar' command so that I do not have to drop
> variables at the end. However, I am having problems using this within loops.
> Are 'tempvar' and 'tempname' not supposed to be used within loops?
There is no problem using -tempvar- and -tempname- in loops, but the commands
may not do what you what you anticipate. Inside a loop or outside, the
variables will be dropped when then the program ends, not when the loop ends.
For instance, the following will work, but use more memory than necessary:
while (...) {
tempvar this
gen `this' = ...
replace that = ... `this' ...
}
The above fragment will create many temporary variables. All will get
destroyed eventually (when the program ends), but until then, they will
tie up memory. Better would be to code,
tempvar this
while (...) {
gen `this' = ...
replace that = ... `this' ...
drop `this'
}
This is not to say that -tempvar- within loops is always to be avoided, but it
should be avoided unless you are going to the trouble of saving the temporary
name somewhere because you later need to refer to it. E.g., I have coded,
local tvars = ""
while (...) {
tempvar next
gen `next' = ...
local tvars `tvars' `next'
}
and then, later in the code, coded
foreach var of local tvars {
...
}
-- Bill
[email protected]
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