st: syntax error in forvalues range definition using a tempvar??

["Brian R. Sala" <brsala@ucdavis.edu>]

Can someone enlighten me on this syntax error, please.

why does this fail:

. tempvar maxn

. egen byte `maxn' = max(assignment_count)

. tab `maxn'

   __000001 |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
          4 |     20,299      100.00      100.00
------------+-----------------------------------
      Total |     20,299      100.00

. forvalues i = 1/`maxn' {
  2. di `i'
  3. }
invalid syntax
r(198);


clearly, `maxn' has a value. Superficially, this 
looks equivalent to the syntax shown in the STATA 
8 programming manual (pp. 206-207).

yet when I do this:

. tempvar max_assignments
. egen byte `max_assignments' = max(assignment_count)
. local maxn = `max_assignments'
. forvalues i = 1/`maxn' {
  2. display `i'
  3. }
1
2
3
4

thanks for any help.
--
Brian R. Sala              brsala@ucdavis.edu
Dept. of Political Science 530 752-0977 (o)
UC-Davis                   530 752-8666 (fax)
One Shields Avenue
Davis CA 95616-8682
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