RE: st: RE: macro of macros?

[Nick Cox <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk>]

You can do what Tirthankar showed you just recently. In many ways it's a better method. For reasons that weren't clear to me it seemed that you wanted something different. 

You might find these tutorials useful: 

SJ-3-2  pr0009  . . . . . . . . . . . . . Speaking Stata:  Problems with lists
        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  N. J. Cox
        Q2/03   SJ 3(2):185--202                                 (no commands)
        discusses ways of working through lists held in macros

SJ-2-2  pr0005  . . . . . .  Speaking Stata:  How to face lists with fortitude
        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  N. J. Cox
        Q2/02   SJ 2(2):202--222                                 (no commands)
        demonstrates the usefulness of for, foreach, forvalues, and
        local macros for interactive (non programming) tasks

Nick 
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk 

Maria Ana Vitorino

Thanks Nick. This is very helpful.
This requires that every time I add a set I have to include two  
additional lines and to make sure that the name of the set is in line  
with the index. Using the example again,

If I add another set, say set 4 I need to do:

local set4 "x5 x6"
local index `index' 4

but suppose that what I do (by mistake) is

local set4 "x5 x6"
local index `index' 3

Any chance I can add another set in such a way that these types of  
mistakes won't happen?
Thanks!
Ana


On Nov 6, 2011, at 10:07 AM, Nick Cox wrote:

> Wildcards are for variable names only. But you don't need any such  
> device here. There are various ways to approach what you want.  
> Here's one:
>
> local index
> local set1 "x1 x2"
> local index `index' 1
> local set2 "x2 x3"
> local index `index' 2
>
> foreach i of local index {
> 	reg y xvars `set`i''
> }
>
> Nick
> n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
>
> Maria Ana Vitorino
>
> I've only recently started experimenting with macros and I have the
> following question: can we have a macro of macros and loop through the
> different sub-macros without having to set beforehand  how many sub-
> macros there are in the macro? Maybe it's easier to understand what
> I'm looking for with an example:
>
> I know that the following can be done:
>
> local set1 "x1 x2"
> local set2 "x2 x3"
> local sets ""`set1'" "`set2'""  ***
>
> foreach xvars of local sets {
> reg y xvars
> }
>
> But, instead of having to list all the macros in the line ***, can we
> have something like:
>
> local set1 "x1 x2"
> local set2 "x2 x3"
>
> local sets ""`set'*""
>
> foreach xvars of local sets {
> reg y xvars
> }
>
>
> Ideally I would like to add (or remove) sets as a please so I wouldn't
> like to have to keep updating the line *** everytime I do so...
>

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