st: Re: Syntax Error in forvalues loop

["Martin Weiss" <martin.weiss1@gmx.de>]

Welcome, good to see you guys on the list! You are handing -replace- a lot 
of variables which it cannot take. Give it only one per run through the 
loops! (see -h replace-) If necessary, nest those loops just as much as you 
nest a -forvalues- and an -if- loop in the second example.

Also, in that second loop, remove the quotes around `i' int he first line. 
Also familiarize yourselves with -egen- overall and with the -total()- 
option in particular.

HTH
Martin
_______________________
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michelle Debbink" <mdebbink@med.umich.edu>
To: <statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu>
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 8:53 PM
Subject: st: Syntax Error in forvalues loop


> Hi All - New to the listserv and seem to be running into an issue with a 
> forvalues loop.  We have a categorical variable for the race/ethnicity of 
> a list of contacts for each respondent to a survey up to 28 contacts. 
> Some respondents have fewer than 28 contacts and so have missing data for 
> some contact entries.  We would like to sum the number of contacts of each 
> race for each respondent (so as to have a variable for number of white 
> contacts, number of black contacts, etc).  In order to sum the contacts, 
> we need to make a dummy variable for each contact regarding their race, 
> and missing values must be replaced with zero so that the sum isn't 
> returned as missing.  We have tried each of the following forvalues loops 
> but it seems to not be working (all return "_=invalid name") and we would 
> appreciate any guidance you could give.
>
> // generate dummy variables for ethnicity of all sex partners in last 12mo 
> and replace missing with 0
> forvalues i = 1/28 {
> tab sprace`i', gen(sprace`i'cat_)
> replace sprace`i'cat_* =0 if sprace`i'==.
> }
>
> //generate an identical variable that has no missing values (which we 
> could then use to make the dummy variables to sum)
> forvalues `i'=1/28{
>     if sprace`i'!=. {
>     gen spracem`i'=sprace`i'
>             }
>     else{
>    gen spracem`i'=0
>           }
>    }
>
> //sum across all the new dummy variables to get number of contacts of each 
> race
> forvalues i=1/28{
> gen numwhitepart = sum(sprace`i'cat_1)
> gen numblkpart=sum(sprace`i'cat_2)
> gen numhispart=sum(sprace`i'cat_3)
> }
>
> Thank you for all your help!
> Michelle
>
> *********************************************************************
> Michelle L P Debbink
> MD/PhD student, University of Michigan Medical School/School of Public 
> Health
> Michigan Health Justice Director, American Medical Student Association
> 734-904-9924 (phone)
> 440-274-9659 (fax)
> mdebbink@umich.edu
>
>
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