mganz
>
> I'm running Stata 6.0 and I want to set some global
> macros in one program and then access them, in a
> general way in another.
>
> This is what I want to do:
>
> * In the main program I set the globals
> global skip1=1
> for num 2/10: global skipX=0
> do something
This can slow a program down. -while- is
going to be faster than -for- for this.
(In 7, -forval- is even faster and better.)
>
> * Then in the something.do file I want to repeatedly
> * do some regressions and simulations, but only if
> * a $skip macro is not equal to 1
> local i=1
> while (`i'<=10){
> if $skip`i'~=1{
> reg y x w z, if b==`i'
> * etc, etc
> }
> local i=`i'+1
> }
>
> But when the while-loop expands the $skip`i' it doesn't
> expand it to $skip1, $skip2, etc.
>
> How can I accomplish this in a generalized and hopefully
> not too cumbersome way?
The problem is that Stata is reading from left
to right and dividing your command into tokens.
By default the ` of `i' is taken as a signal
that a new token is starting, and so necessarily
that current token, which started with $skip,
is ending. Thus Stata treats your line as
$skip
followed immediately by
`i'
Very likely, $skip is undefined and so
evaluates to an empty string. `i' is
of course well defined.
You just have to flag to Stata to substitute `i'
before it works out the global:
${skip`i'}
That way, Stata does things in the right order,
just as with parentheses, brackets and braces
in an algebraic expression, except that Stata
uses braces for this specific purpose.
Nick
[email protected]
*
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