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Re: st: forvalues foreach or while loop for sequential variables


From   Nick Cox <[email protected]>
To   "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject   Re: st: forvalues foreach or while loop for sequential variables
Date   Thu, 31 Oct 2013 23:27:42 +0000

Thanks for the clarification. Note that in long structure (!) your
entire operation would just be one line, something like

by obs: drop if hosp == hosp[_n-1]

or

by obs: keep if hosp != hosp[_n-1]
Nick
[email protected]


On 31 October 2013 19:23, Robbie Katz <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thanks Roberto, A Loumiotis, and Nick!
>
> I should have mentioned this earlier but, the variables are date
> variables, and the data set was previously in a long format. The
> problem 1, identified by Nick will not occur because I sorted the
> variable hosp, before reshaping to wide, so something like "6,9,6"
> will not occur. However, something like "5,5,5," could occur, and the
> code that I had would miss that, but looks like Nick's solution is apt
> to avert this problem.
>
> Nick I think I sort of answered your question above, but I need to
> throw away the extra dates if they are repeated as they don't add any
> extra information.
>
> Thank you guys a bunch!
>
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 5:12 AM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
>> (Revised version of previous)
>>
>> This picks up the syntax Robbie was missing, namely
>>
>> `=exp'
>>
>> for some expression exp, but it won't work entirely as desired.
>> Suppose -hospital7- -hospital8- -hospital9- are all 42. Then
>> -hospital8- is changed to missing because it is the same as
>> -hospital7-, but next time around the loop -hospital9- of 42 is
>> compared with missing and nothing is changed.
>>
>> Roberto pointed out this problem too.
>>
>> The following should be an improvement for a solution without -reshape-.
>>
>> clear
>>  input obs hosp14  hosp15 hosp16
>>  1   1      5    5
>>  2   6      9    6
>>  3   8      1    3
>>  4   5      5    5
>>  5   2      2    2
>>  6   2      9    1
>>  7   1      1    1
>>  8   3      1    7
>>  9   3      0    4
>>  end
>>
>> gen previous = hosp14
>> gen temp = .
>>
>> qui forval j = 15/16 {
>>        replace temp = hosp`j'
>>        replace hosp`j' = . if hosp`j' == previous
>>        replace previous = temp
>> }
>>
>> drop previous temp
>>
>> That said,
>>
>> 1. The non-missing values left will not be guaranteed unique or
>> distinct. Hospitals 6, 9, 6 visited in that order will be left as is
>> and 6 will occur twice.
>>
>> 2. Throwing away information is always risky. Why do you want to do this?
>>
>> 3. As these are in essence panel data, Roberto's implication that in
>> many ways you are better off with a long data structure (I don't like
>> the word "format" here) is worth pondering.
>>
>>> Nick
>>> [email protected]
>>>
>>>
>>> On 31 October 2013 07:32, A Loumiotis <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> another way without defining a new local would be:
>>>>
>>>> replace hosp`num'=. if hosp`num'==hosp`=`num'-1'
>>>>
>>>> Antonis
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 8:52 AM, Roberto Ferrer <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> Elaborating a bit more, according to your example, you intend
>>>>> something along the lines of:
>>>>>
>>>>> *-------- begin code ---------
>>>>> clear
>>>>> set more off
>>>>>
>>>>> input obs hosp14  hosp15 hosp16
>>>>> 1   1      5    5
>>>>> 2   6      9    6
>>>>> 3   8      1    3
>>>>> 4   5      5    5
>>>>> 5   2      2    2
>>>>> 6   2      9    1
>>>>> 7   1      1    1
>>>>> 8   3      1    7
>>>>> 9   3      0    4
>>>>> end
>>>>>
>>>>> list
>>>>>
>>>>> * You have this in a loop
>>>>> replace hosp15 = . if hosp15 == hosp14
>>>>> list
>>>>> *--------- end code ----------
>>>>>
>>>>> but this compares only contiguos hospitals (14 with 15 and 15 with 16) but not
>>>>> hospitals that are "further apart" (14 with 16). This is the case with
>>>>> observation 2 in the example data I created. Your loop misses this comparison,
>>>>> which I assume is important, i.e., you want hosp16 to equal .
>>>>> for that observation because hosp14 already takes the value of 6. If
>>>>> the assumption
>>>>> is true, this is very problematic.
>>>>>
>>>>> That said, now take a look at what your variables are evaluating to
>>>>> inside the loop
>>>>> (use -display- for this):
>>>>>
>>>>> *-------- begin code ---------
>>>>> clear
>>>>> set more off
>>>>>
>>>>> input obs hosp14  hosp15 hosp16
>>>>> 1   1      5    5
>>>>> 2   6      9    6
>>>>> 3   8      1    3
>>>>> 4   5      5    5
>>>>> 5   2      2    2
>>>>> 6   2      9    1
>>>>> 7   1      1    1
>>>>> 8   3      1    7
>>>>> 9   3      0    4
>>>>> end
>>>>>
>>>>> forvalues num=15/16 {
>>>>>           display "hosp`num'" // your LHS
>>>>>           display "hosp``num'-1'" // your RHS
>>>>>           replace hosp`num'=. if hosp`num'==hosp``num'-1'
>>>>> }
>>>>>
>>>>> *--------- end code ----------
>>>>>
>>>>> The LHS is OK, but the RHS is always evaluating to "hosp". You do not
>>>>> specify your
>>>>> error in your post (you mention "it didn't work" and you should be
>>>>> specific about it)
>>>>> but here I get this:
>>>>>
>>>>> hosp ambiguous abbreviation
>>>>> r(111);
>>>>>
>>>>> Stata doesn't know if you're refering to hosp14, hosp15 or hosp16, and
>>>>> so it halts
>>>>> with an error.
>>>>>
>>>>> Because I mess up easily with all the quotes (maybe someone will
>>>>> clarify this point),
>>>>> my strategy is to declare a new local and then use it for the RHS:
>>>>>
>>>>> *---
>>>>> forvalues num=15/16 {
>>>>>           local newnum = `num' - 1
>>>>>           replace hosp`num' = . if hosp`num' == hosp`newnum'
>>>>> }
>>>>> *---
>>>>>
>>>>> I hope this helps.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 1:42 AM, Roberto Ferrer <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>> Robbie,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Here is one way avoiding the loop and using -reshape-.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *-------begin code ---------
>>>>>>
>>>>>> clear
>>>>>> set more off
>>>>>>
>>>>>> input obs hosp14  hosp15 hosp16
>>>>>> 1   1      5    5
>>>>>> 2   6      9    6
>>>>>> 3   8      1    3
>>>>>> 4   5      5    5
>>>>>> 5   2      2    2
>>>>>> 6   2      9    1
>>>>>> 7   1      1    1
>>>>>> 8   3      1    7
>>>>>> 9   3      0    4
>>>>>> end
>>>>>>
>>>>>> list
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * Reshape to manipulate
>>>>>> reshape long hosp, i(obs) j(hnum)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> sort obs hosp hnum // important
>>>>>> gen hosp2 = hosp
>>>>>> by obs: replace hosp2 = . if hosp[_n] == hosp[_n-1]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> drop hosp
>>>>>> rename hosp2 hosp
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * Take back to original form
>>>>>> reshape wide hosp, i(obs) j(hnum)
>>>>>> list // compare this with original input
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *------- end code ---------
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 12:41 AM, Robbie Katz <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>> I have a wide format data with variables with same text and different
>>>>>>> numbers attached to them. The variables look like this: hospital1
>>>>>>> hospital2 hospital3...hospital15. I want only unique values across
>>>>>>> these variable for any one observation. For instance if both hospital
>>>>>>> 15 and hospital14 have the same value say, 10, then I want to delete
>>>>>>> 10 and replace it with "." for hospital15. Please let me know how I
>>>>>>> can run a loop to achieve this.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I tried the following but it didn't work:
>>>>>>> forvalues num=2/15 {
>>>>>>>           replace hospital`num'=. if hospital`num'==hospital``num'-1'
>>>>>>>   }
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Please help,
>>>>>>> Thanks!
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