Yan elaine Li
>
> I would like to get help on the following problem:
>
> i have a life history dataset on job mobility, where for each
> observation i have the following variables:
>
> job01 start01 end01 indstr01 income01 ... job12 - income12 ...
>
> where 'start01' means the starting year and 'end01' means the
> ending year of the first job.
>
> I also have a variable 'yrmar' (year married), and my task is to
> find out what job a person had when s/he got married and how
> much they earn from that job and so on.
>
> I tried the following code and it obviously doesn't work when
> you have a variable named "start01" instead of "start1":
>
> gen jobmar=.
> gen incmar=.
> forvalues i=01(1)12 {
> if (yrmar >= start`i' & yrmar<= end`i') {
> replace jobmar=job`i'
> replace incmar=income`i'
> }
> }
>
> I guess the central question is how to loop using strings/chars
> rather than number.
>
Solution 1
==========
You can fix this upstream by removing
the leading zeroes from your variable names.
foreach stub in job start end indstr income {
renvars `stub'0? \ `stub'1-`stub'9
}
and then go
forvalues i=1/12 {
...
}
Here -renvars- is a program published in STB-60.
Solution 2
==========
Or you can loop over strings by
spelling them out
foreach y in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 {
...
}
Simple, and quick in this example, but inelegant.
Solution 3
==========
Or you could do this:
forval j = 1/12 {
local i : di %02.0f `j'
<code in terms of `i'>
}
The leading zero format puts a "0" in front
of any single digit.
Warning
=======
However, there is a _big_ bug of a different kind
now lurking in your code.
if (yrmar >= start`i' & yrmar<= end`i') {
replace jobmar=job`i'
replace incmar=income`i'
}
You don't mean what you write here, I guess. See
the FAQ
I have an if command in my program that only seems to
evaluate the first observation. What's going on?
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/lang/ifqualifier.html
I think you need
replace jobmar=job`i' if (yrmar >= start`i' & yrmar<= end`i')
replace incmar=income`i'if (yrmar >= start`i' & yrmar<= end`i')
Comment
=======
Many things are going to be easier if you -reshape-
this data set to long. See [R] reshape and, if
need be, the FAQ
I am having problems with the reshape command.
Can you give further guidance?
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/reshape3.html
Nick
[email protected]
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