RE: st: foreach loop for scoring answers

["David Radwin" <dradwin@mprinc.com>]

You may also be interested in Kit Baum's paper "A little bit of Stata
programming goes a long way," available at
http://ideas.repec.org/p/boc/usug05/16.html , which introduces loops and
other elements of Stata programming.

David

--
David Radwin
Research Associate
MPR Associates, Inc.
2150 Shattuck Ave., Suite 800
Berkeley, CA 94704
Phone: 510-849-4942
Fax: 510-849-0794

www.mprinc.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-
> statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Nick Cox
> Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 2:00 AM
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: RE: st: foreach loop for scoring answers
> 
> Tutorial articles on -for*- loops and -by:- are accessible to all
> through the Stata Journal website:
> 
> SJ-2-2  pr0005  . . . . . .  Speaking Stata:  How to face lists with
> fortitude
>         Q2/02   SJ 2(2):202--222                                 (no
> commands)
>         demonstrates the usefulness of for, foreach, forvalues, and
>         local macros for interactive (non programming) tasks
> 
> SJ-2-1  pr0004  . . . . . . . . . . Speaking Stata:  How to move step
> by: step
>         Q1/02   SJ 2(1):86--102                                  (no
> commands)
>         explains the use of the by varlist : construct to tackle
>         a variety of problems with group structure, ranging from
>         simple calculations for each of several groups to more
>         advanced manipulations that use the built-in _n and _N
> 
> Nick
> n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
> 
> Stas Kolenikov
> 
> If you have "wide" data (in the sense of -reshape-), you can
> 
> sort id
> foreach x of <the list of items> {
>    gen byte correct_`x' = (`x'==`x'[_N])
> }
> 
> If you have "long" data,
> 
> bysort item (id) : gen byte correct = (response == response[_N])
> 
> On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 7:51 PM, Brandon Olszewski
> 
> > I have a data set containing answers from 100 student answers to a
> > 50-item test; one of the "students" is the answer key (id=101). I want
> > to create new variables coded 0/1 (incorrect/correct) by comparing
> > student answers to the key's answers. I realize I could do this
> > somewhat barbarically, like this:
> > gen correct_1=<manually enter correct answer for question 1>
> > gen dummy_1=0
> > replace dummy_1=1 if answer_1==correct_1
> >
> > ...and so on, copying syntax and replacing '1' with whatever number
> > question I'm working with.
> >
> > Instead, I want to do this more elegantly by writing a macro that will
> > do this for me. I understand that I can use the foreach or forvalues
> > commands to accomplish this, but am lost on how to get started with
> > them, as my unix language skills and familiarity with macros are not
> > up to par. I'm also unsure about how to use one of my cases (the key,
> > id=101) in the comparative way I've described (to create values for
> > in/correct answers from the 100 other cases). I have checked previous
> > do-files (that colleagues have built with me) and stata documentation
> > but am unable to make solid sense out of them for my purposes.

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