st: problem creating and doing a foreach on a local of all numericvariables in a dataset

["Jennifer S. Earl" <jearl@soc.ucsb.edu>]

In the middle of a program I am working on, I need to set a bunch of 
variables to missing, some of which are numeric and some of which are 
string. Since the replace command is sensitive to numeric or string, I need 
to do separate foreach loops.

Here is what I have tried:

ds , has(type numeric)
local num_vars r(varlist)
foreach var of local num_vars {
	replace `var'=. if `var'_error==1
}

ds , has(type string)
local string_vars r(varlist)
foreach var of local string_vars {
	replace `var'="" if `var'_error==1
}

Unfortunately, when I try this, I get the following error:
time-series operators not allowed
r(101);

If I do instead (in case if is my foreach line that is giving me problems):
ds , has(type numeric)
local num_vars r(varlist)
foreach var of local `num_vars' {
	replace `var'=. if `var'_error==1
}

I get the following error:
{ required
r(100);

But, the puzzling part is that I see the right list of numeric variables 
displayed if I do:

ds , has(type numeric)
local num_vars r(varlist)
display `num_vars'

So, I know I am fetching the right list, I am just not able to operate on 
it in the foreach loop.

I have tried other ways of selecting off just the numeric variables and 
just the string and none are working.

Any suggestions? Maybe it is late and I missing something obvious?

Cheers,

Jenn

*********************************
Jennifer Earl
Director, Center for Information Technology and Society
Associate Professor of Sociology
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA  93106-9430

P: (805) 893-7471
F: (805) 893-3324
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