The previous posting explained that the
terminology "variable" is not appropriate
here.
Your main question was answered earlier this month
in this posting:
=============================================
st: RE: Variable names incompatable with aflogit?
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 20:03:23 +0100
The problem is with references to
$`1'
where Stata is expected by the programmer
to take the local macro name first and then
evaluate the global name that results. If that
is what you want, you are expected to spell that
out explicitly.
Presumably this worked at one point, but
(again I surmise) StataCorp perhaps tightened
up on what was seen as a bug or a misfeature.
A quick experiment indicates that changes
to the code so that these lines read as below
produces output.
212 replace `1' = ${`1'} - `1'
241 gen `zmx' = ${`1'} - `1'
272 replace `1' = ${`1'} if `1' != .
281 replace `1' = ${`1'} if `1' != . /* reset exposure to reference level */
That is, assignments referring to
$`1'
should be to
${`1'}
instead.
=============================================================
In your case, your code would be better off as
forvalues n = 1/10 {
local p = `n' + 1
reg y`n' ${X`p'}
}
which forces Stata to delay evaluation of the global
macro name until it has evaluated the local macro
name.
But look at your code. You are looping over n
and also over p, by an explicit increment.
That's because you have your global macro
numbering out of sync with your y numbering.
I would sort that out upstream, so that
you can just go
forvalues n = 1/10 {
reg y`n' ${X`n'}
}
The reason is that if your numbering is awkward for one bit
of code, it is going to be awkward for other
bits too. All this code is going to be harder to
write, harder to read, and more prone bugs
If there is some compelling argument not
to do what looks dopey on the evidence available, then
note another way to do it:
forval n = 1/10 {
reg y`n' ${X`=`n' + 1'}
but I recommend tidying up over trickery every
time.
Nick
[email protected]
Nishant Dass
> I have a small (or so it seems) problem with a loop (shown
> below).
>
> I start by generating a few global macros:
> global X2 "age2 weight2 height2"
> global X3 "age3 weight3 height3"
> ...
> global X11 "age11 weight11 height11"
>
> Then I try to run the following set of regressions using a
> loop:
> forvalues n = 1/10 {
> local p = `n' + 1
> reg y`n' $X`p'
> }
>
> However, this isn't executed due to an error that says "2
> invalid name" (i.e., it's referring to some problem in the
> way I have used `p' in $X`p'.)
>
> Could anyone please tell me what would be the correct way
> to do this?
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