st: Fwd: Neverending loop....

[Roberto Mura <roberto.mura3@tin.it>]

Hi everyone I am a PHD student in Economics in York University (UK). I have 
been working on a do file, trying to re-rank some 60 variables I have in my 
database. My problem is that i cannot make my loop a "smart" loop so to 
speak. My re-ranking do file (is probably very inefficient because i am 
relatively new to Stata) is based on pair-wise differences among variables. 
So I need Stata to keep on performing the series of programs I wrote until 
the condition that none of these 59 differences is negative. I have been 
able to create a "dumb loop" like: local i=1 while `i' <=23 { set more off 
quietly zero quietly primo quietly secondo finale_bis display `i' local 
i=`i'+1 }

it takes 23 iterations until all differences are >=0

What I would need is for stata to do something like

while diff1<0 | diff2<0 | diff3<0 | diff4<0 | diff5<0 |diff6<0 |diff7<0 
|diff8<0 |diff9<0 |diff10<0 | diff11<0 | diff12<0 | diff13<0 | diff14<0 | 
diff15<0 |diff16<0 |diff17<0 |diff18<0 |diff19<0 |diff20<0 | diff21<0 | 
diff22<0 | diff23<0 | diff24<0 | diff25<0 |diff26<0 |diff27<0 |diff28<0 
|diff29<0 |diff30<0 | diff31<0 | diff32<0 | diff33<0 | diff34<0 | diff35<0 
|diff36<0 |diff37<0 |diff38<0 |diff39<0 |diff40<0 | diff41<0 | diff42<0 | 
diff43<0 | diff44<0 | diff45<0 |diff46<0 |diff47<0 |diff48<0 |diff49<0 
|diff50<0 | diff51<0 | diff52<0 | diff53<0 | diff54<0 | diff55<0 |diff56<0 
|diff57<0 |diff58<0 |diff59<0  { set more off quietly zero quietly primo 
quietly secondo finale_bis }

Now, for some reason I cannot explain myself, it works for only 9 
iterations and then it stops. So it is not "understanding" the if condition 
properly.This statement is reinforced by the fact that if I run this when 
only, say,  3 more iterations are needed it does nothing as after the first 
nine.

The third and last way I could come up with was to "encapsulate" that huge 
if condition into a single variable......

by firm: gen elio=1 replace elio=0 if diff1<0 | diff2<0 | diff3<0 | diff4<0 
| diff5<0 |diff6<0 |diff7<0 |diff8<0 |diff9<0 |diff10<0 | diff11<0 | 
diff12<0 | diff13<0 | diff14<0 | diff15<0 |diff16<0 |diff17<0 |diff18<0 
|diff19<0 |diff20<0 | diff21<0 | diff22<0 | diff23<0 | diff24<0 | diff25<0 
|diff26<0 |diff27<0 |diff28<0 |diff29<0 |diff30<0 | diff31<0 | diff32<0 | 
diff33<0 | diff34<0 | diff35<0 |diff36<0 |diff37<0 |diff38<0 |diff39<0 
|diff40<0 | diff41<0 | diff42<0 | diff43<0 | diff44<0 | diff45<0 |diff46<0 
|diff47<0 |diff48<0 |diff49<0 |diff50<0 | diff51<0 | diff52<0 | diff53<0 | 
diff54<0 | diff55<0 |diff56<0 |diff57<0 |diff58<0 |diff59<0

while elio ==1  { quietly drop elio set more off quietly zero quietly primo 
quietly secondo finale_bis by firm: gen elio=1 replace elio=0 if diff1<0 | 
diff2<0 | diff3<0 | diff4<0 | diff5<0 |diff6<0 |diff7<0 |diff8<0 |diff9<0 
|diff10<0 | diff11<0 | diff12<0 | diff13<0 | diff14<0 | diff15<0 |diff16<0 
|diff17<0 |diff18<0 |diff19<0 |diff20<0 | diff21<0 | diff22<0 | diff23<0 | 
diff24<0 | diff25<0 |diff26<0 |diff27<0 |diff28<0 |diff29<0 |diff30<0 | 
diff31<0 | diff32<0 | diff33<0 | diff34<0 | diff35<0 |diff36<0 |diff37<0 
|diff38<0 |diff39<0 |diff40<0 | diff41<0 | diff42<0 | diff43<0 | diff44<0 | 
diff45<0 |diff46<0 |diff47<0 |diff48<0 |diff49<0 |diff50<0 | diff51<0 | 
diff52<0 | diff53<0 | diff54<0 | diff55<0 |diff56<0 |diff57<0 |diff58<0 
|diff59<0 }

but that's where I get into a never ending loop! finale_bis produces the 
number of differences (count if.....) still negative but, after reaching 
the zero, it keeps on performing the operations.

Thank you all very much for your kind attention
Best regards Ciao
********************************************************************
Roberto Mura

address in the UK
22, Turners Croft
Heslington
York
YO105EL
tel: 0044 (0)1904 412 869

indirizzo in Italia
via Capo Sandalo 4
09042 Monserrato, Cagliari

work related email: rmura@unica.it
                       roberto.mura@crenos.it
                       rm143@york.ac.uk

personal email:        fellowsh@tiscali.it
                        fellowsh@libero.it
                        roberto.mura3@tin.it
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