Re: st: log file recording within loops

[Michael Norman Mitchell <Michael.Norman.Mitchell@gmail.com>]

Dear Jan

  I have frequently wished for the exact same thing. In SPSS there is 
"DO REPEAT" and "END REPEAT PRINT.", where the "PRINT" option specifies 
that each command generated by the loop is displayed, for example.

DO REPEAT Q=Q1 TO Q5/ R=R1 TO R5.
  COMPUTE Q=0.
  COMPUTE R=1.
END REPEAT PRINT.

  I sometimes will fake this in Stata by typing, at the command window

. set trace on
. set tracedepth 1

  and then the contents of the loops are displayed, e.g.

--- test.do ---
sysuse auto, clear
foreach v of varlist m* {
  summarize `v'
}
---- test.do ---

do test

. sysuse auto, clear
(1978 Automobile Data)

. foreach v of varlist m* {
  2.   summarize `v'
  3. }
- foreach v of varlist m* {
- summarize `v'
= summarize make

    Variable |       Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+--------------------------------------------------------
        make |         0
- }
- summarize `v'
= summarize mpg

    Variable |       Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+--------------------------------------------------------
         mpg |        74     21.2973    5.785503         12         41
- }

.
end of do-file

Michael N. Mitchell
See the Stata tidbit of the week at...
http://www.MichaelNormanMitchell.com

On 2010-03-20 1.44 PM, Jan Stuhler wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> a question on log-files. Stata does not log any commands that are 
> inside loops (it only logs the results/output). Since loops are 
> usually all over in my do-files I end up having a long list of 
> uninformative notices in my log-files.
>
> I know that most people add comments (e.g. "di ....") in their 
> do-files in order to keep track at which part of the loop their 
> log-file is recording. I do not like this solution since it means a 
> lot of additional typing and a potential source of typos. Is there any 
> other solution, e.g. some sort of "noisily" command that forces Stata 
> to log commands within loops?
>
> Many thanks for any answers,
> Jan
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