I am not sure quite what you are looking for here.
I note that your code can be compressed to
gen hsecostw=0 if inlist(m1, 1, 6, 7, 8)
local i=1
foreach x of numlist 1 2 12 52 {
replace hsecostw = valm3/`x' if valm3>=0 & m4==`i'
replace hsecostw = valm5/`x' if valm5>=0 & m5b==`i'
local ++i
}
Quite how you would extend the process to make the code
more general would depend on stuff out of sight in this
posting.
However, efficiency in terms of Stata code is not much
of a gain if it takes you longer to understand your own
code when you revisit it much later.
An orthogonal tip arises from my affection for alliteration.
I often code -foreach- loops with code like
foreach v of var <varlist> {
}
or
foreach n of numlist <numlist> {
}
and conversely I find that using x has no
mnemonic associations that make it attractive
here.
Nick
[email protected]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Michael
> Alexander
> Sent: 18 July 2006 07:43
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: st: more efficient techniques
>
>
> Hi Statalist
>
> In the interests of learning some more efficient programming
> techniques,
> I am wondering anyone can suggest a way to improve the
> following code.
> Ideally, I would like to do away with the second -foreach- statement,
> which is just a repeat of the first with arguments changed (valm5 for
> valm3 and m5b for m4). In this case it was no big deal to
> just copy the
> first statement and amend its contents, but if I had 20
> occurences then
> I would obviously want to automate the process. I assume a solution
> would have to do with using an additional -foreach- statement but not
> quite sure how this would work when I have two arguments that need to
> change on each loop through.
>
> Thanks in anticipation
>
> gen hsecostw=0 if inlist(m1, 1, 6, 7, 8)
> local i=1
> foreach x of numlist 1 2 12 52 {
> replace hsecostw = valm3/`x' if valm3>=0 & m4==`i'
> local ++i
> }
> local i=1
> foreach x of numlist 1 2 12 52 {
> replace hsecostw = valm5/`x' if valm5>=0 & m5b==`i'
> local ++i
> }
>
> --
> Michael Alexander
> Principal Research Fellow
> Australian Institute of Family Studies
>
> 300 Queen Street
> Melbourne VIC 3000
>
> Tel: 03 9214 7841
> Fax: 03 9214 7839
> Mob: 0419 406 078
> Email: [email protected]
> Web-site: www.aifs.gov.au
>
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