Re: st: Strange -xi- behavior when naming new variables

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

If you want to map the string in macro `J' (e.g. "05") to a decimal
(e.g. .05) then you just do it by references to

   .`J'

That way Stata sees .05 -- which is what you want.

Nick

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 7:44 AM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
> Whatever happened, my guess is that it is more likely to be a
> side-effect of trying to do exact arithmetic with multiples of .05,
> which will not work on a binary machine.
>
> See, most recently,
>
> <http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/lwgate/STATALIST/archives/statalist.1105/date/article-609.html>
>
> and beyond that
>
> SJ-10-1 pr0051  . . . . . . . . . . . . Stata tip 85: Looping over nonintegers
>        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  N. J. Cox
>        Q1/10   SJ 10(1):160--163                                (no commands)
>        tip on using forvalues to loop over numbers
>
> Try loops over 5(5)95 or 80(5)95. To format leading zeros
>
> forval j = 5(5)95 {
>      local J : di %02.0f `j'
>     <work with `J'>
> }
>
> Nick
>
> 2011/5/18 Jorge Eduardo Pérez Pérez <perez.jorge@ur.edu.co>:
>
>> I have been getting strange results using -xi- in conjuction with -qreg-
>>
>> I ran the following code to get some quantile regression estimates:
>>
>> glo cont "personas_hogar edad edadsq"
>> glo cat "trabajo_permanente ocupacion actividad_empresa
>> tipo_trabajador sexo ultimo_grado_estudios"
>> glo ccat ""
>> foreach x in $cat {
>>        glo ccat "$ccat i.`x'"
>> }
>> forv x=0.05(0.05)0.9501 {
>>        xi: qreg lsalario_real_mes treatment i.area2 i.trimestre $cont $ccat
>> [fw=fex], nolog quantile(`x')
>>        est save "cqte_c_fex_nob_`x'.ster", replace
>> }
>>
>> The regression for quantile 0.75 did not converge and the loop ended
>> with a break, so I skipped that quantile, and reran the last loop
>> starting at the 0.8 quantile, i.e.
>>
>> forv x=0.8(0.05)0.9501 { ....
>>
>> At this point, -xi- changed the convention for naming the variables.
>> Since I saved the estimates, I got the command that was issued
>> everytime by typing:
>>
>> glo a: dir . files "cqte_c_fex_nob_*"
>> foreach x in $a {
>>        est use `x'
>>        di "`x' ***********************************"
>>        di ""
>>        di e(cmdline)
>>        di ""
>> }
>>
>> And got:
>>
>> cqte_c_fex_nob_.7000000000000001.ster ***********************************
>>
>> qreg lsalario_real_mes treatment _Iarea2_* _Itrimestre_*
>> personas_hogar edad edadsq  _Itrabajo_p_* _Iocupacion_* _
>>> Iactividad_* _Itipo_trab_* _Isexo_* _Iultimo_gr_* [fw=fex], nolog quantile(.7000000000000001)
>>
>> cqte_c_fex_nob_.8.ster ***********************************
>>
>> qreg lsalario_real_mes treatment _Iarea2_* _Itrimestre_*
>> personas_hogar edad edadsq  _Itrabajo_p_* _Iocupaciona* _
>>> Iactividad_* _Itipo_trab_* _Isexo_* _Iultimo_gr_* [fw=fex], nolog quantile(.8)
>>
>> Notice the difference between the two commands: _Iocupacion_* and
>> _Iocupaciona*_ !!!!
>>
>> Is this something related to some variables left behind by -xi- when
>> the break occurred? Could this be a bug?
>>
>

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