I want to use stata to dynamically read historical
information from Excel on an expandable list of
things and also a matrix that codifies some
information on how these things are interrelated
which I will later interpret in a do-file.
So e.g., I would try to get stata to build a matrix
for me by reading an excel sheet that has data in
the format of:
namesvar var1 var2 var3
cotton 1 1 2
sugar 2 2 1
coffee 0 0 2
This data is not of a fixed size but I am happy to
keep it always of the same form where namesvar lists
the names of the variables (same for columns and
rows) and the data is ordered in a meaningful way so
if I add another var like "wheat" to the above then
I add a column of 4 numbers and a row with "wheat"
and also 4 numbers.
I was going to read the sheet with:
insheet using "TestNames.csv"
and then do:
mkmat var*, matrix(X)
I can get the data (the numbers) into the matrix.
My question is: How do I get the namesvar into a
"list" so I can use it to rename the rows and
columns? I have programming experience in other
languages but cannot figure out how to do this in
stata (beginner in stata programming)
I tried this as follows in a do-file:
local nlist = ""
local tempstr = ""
forval i = 1(1)3 { *really 3 supposed to be _N but
trying to keep it simple for debug
list namesvar *debug
disp namesvar[`i'] *debug
local tempstr = namesvar[`i']
local nlist = `nlist' + "`tempstr'"
disp `nlist' *debug
}
But even though the names display correctly, they do
not work in the "string list builder" line.
One more issue I may have is that the number of
variables can potentially be rather large like 100 or
so. From what I can see there are limitations to the
length of strings in Stata. So maybe even if I can
solve the above problem I am still stuck with this
problem??
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
