Re: st: Dynamic variables names from file name

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

You seem to be confusing Stata variables and Stata local macros.

foreach i in a2010 b2010 {
      use "`i'.dta"
      local j =substr("`i'",1,1)        // cut off the first letter in the name
      gen newvar =`j'v1 + `j'v2       // get it into he variable name
}

See also http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2008-08/msg01258.html

Nick

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 11:39 AM, Jana J. <j.jarecki@gmx.net> wrote:

> could anybody tell me how to generate variable names dynamically which
> are a combination of (i) a part of a file name + (ii) some characters.
>
> Simplified example:
> I have 2 datasets [e.g. called "a2010.dta" and "b2010.dta"]. Each
> contains variable names that are identical except for the first part,
> which comes from some part of the name of the dataset. [e.g. for
> "a2010.dta" - av1, av2, ... and for "b2010.dta" - bv1, bv2, ... ]
> Now I want to generate a loop using each of the two datasets and
> compute things with the variables. [What I want is, e.g., to generate
> a variable newvar = av1 + av2 and newvar =bv1+bv2, for both datasets.]
> How do I generate and use variable names within the loop, which are a
> combination of a part of the file name and some appended string?
>
> I tried
>
> for each i in a2010 b2010 {
>   use "`i'.dta"
>   gen j =substr("`i'",1,1)    // cut off the first letter in the name
> of the dataset i
>   gen newvar =`j'v1 + `j'v1       // try to get it into he variable name
> }
>
>
> I also tried to generate strings which are identical to the variable name
>
>   gen j = substr("`i'",1,1)    // cut off the first letter in the
> name of the dataset i
>   gen k =v1  // generate second part of variable
>   egen l =concat(j k)   // paste together
>
> But I dont know how to use the content of this string variable "l" as
> the name of a variable within the dataset, and not as the string
> variable "l"  itself.

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