Re: st: Foreach looping code for generating a Quantiles variable for each two digit sic code

[Jaime Laird <jmc981@gmail.com>]

Ok great! Thank you for the helpful answers. I am learning so much from this group!

On Feb 16, 2012, at 5:53 PM, Nick Cox wrote:

> My typo, sorry
> 
>             egen resremRDq`y' = xtile(resremRD) if Year ==`y'
> 
> As for your question: If the data have a different structure or shape,
> then the code would need to differ. What -reshape- calls "long" is in
> general a better structure for panel data.
> 
> Nick
> 
> On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 10:19 PM, Jaime Laird <jmc981@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Nick,
>> 
>> Thank you for the reply! That was very helpful. Yes, I did omit an -if- condition from his original code. I also forgot to mention that my code I listed below was set up to work with the data in long format when I had a Year variable but I was hoping to be able to loop the command without switching to long.
>> 
>> One question: Where does the `v' come in? What does it mean?
>> 
>>>                               egen resremRDq`y' = xtile(resremRD) if Year ==`v' ,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> However, why use separate variables for each year when you could put
>>> the results in one variable?
>>> 
>>>      egen resremRDq = xtile(resremRD), nquantiles(4) by(twodigit year)
>> 
>> **This is exactly the end result I wanted! Thank you for this. I assume I will need to format long to get the year variable to use this also?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 16, 2012, at 4:02 PM, Nick Cox wrote:
>> 
>>> The trickiest part here is that years are represented inconsistently
>>> but otherwise the loop is just a loop over years. Study of -help
>>> numlist- points to a more direct solution:
>>> 
>>> foreach y of num 95/99 2000/2010 {
>>>      egen resremRDq`y' = xtile(resremRD) if Year ==`v' ,
>>> nquantiles(4) by(twodigit)
>>> }
>>> 
>>> Naturally all you need to do is
>>> 
>>> replace Year = Year + 1900 if Year < 100
>>> 
>>> and then the loop could just be
>>> 
>>> foreach y of num 1995/2010 {
>>>      egen resremRDq`y' = xtile(resremRD) if Year ==`v' ,
>>> nquantiles(4) by(twodigit)
>>> }
>>> 
>>> or
>>> 
>>> forval y = 1995/2010 {
>>>      egen resremRDq`y' = xtile(resremRD) if Year ==`v' ,
>>> nquantiles(4) by(twodigit)
>>> }
>>> 
>>> However, why use separate variables for each year when you could put
>>> the results in one variable?
>>> 
>>>      egen resremRDq = xtile(resremRD), nquantiles(4) by(twodigit year)
>>> 
>>> There is a basic tutorial on loops in
>>> 
>>> 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
>>> 
>>> The strange but to me pleasing fact that the work appeared in 2(2):
>>> 202-222 (2002) was a pure accident, but too too droll not to mention.
>>> 
>>> Back to your code: The loop
>>> 
>>> foreach t of loc ts {
>>>     xtile resremRDq`yr' = resremRD`yr', nquantiles(4)
>>> }
>>> 
>>> fails because you make no use of the values of -ts- within the loop.
>>> Thus second time round the loop the -xtile- call is exactly the same
>>> as first time round, and your code stops within each error. I guess
>>> you omitted an -if- condition.
>>> 
>>> Nick
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 9:14 PM, Jaime Laird <jmc981@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I have search the appropriate places and have not seen my particular question addressed so I hoping I will add something to the list with this question. Forgive me if I have missed something.
>>>> 
>>>> What I need to do:
>>>> 
>>>> I need to plot the Quartiles for each two-digit Siccode in my data and it also need to be done by year. I have successfully found the code to do this but I would like to better understand looping to streamline tasks such as these.
>>>> 
>>>> The following code gives the results I need (I downloaded this SSC from within Stata, it is called egenmore):
>>>> 
>>>> egen resremRDq96 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==96, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq97 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==97, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq98 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==98, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq99 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==99, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq2000 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==2000, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq2001 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==2001, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq2002 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==2002, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq2003 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==2003, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq2004 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==2004, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq2005 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==2005, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq2006 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==2006, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq2007 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==2007, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq2008 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==2008, nquantiles(4)
>>>> egen resremRDq2009 = xtile (resremRD), by (twodigit), if Year ==2009, nquantiles(4)
>>>> 
>>>> A member here gave me a code to help loop my regressions and I tried to adapt it to work with these quantiles but was unsuccessful. Here is the code I tried to make from his:
>>>> 
>>>> forv y=1995/2009 {
>>>> if `y'<2000 loc yr=substr("`y'",3,2)
>>>> else loc yr `y'
>>>> qui levelsof twodigit if !mi(rd`yr'), loc(ts)
>>>> foreach t of loc ts {
>>>> xtile resremRDq`yr' = resremRD`yr', nquantiles(4)
>>>> }
>>>> }
>>>> 
>>>> The results only formed one new variable named "resremrdq95" and it did not assign the Quartiles by siccode (twodigit).
>>>> 
>>>> It also returns this error:
>>>> 
>>>> run "/var/folders/aL/aLs0EaEHFfCArViD4qvSeU+++TI/-Tmp-//SD07955.000000"
>>>> resremRDq95 already defined
>>>> r(110);
>>>> 
>>>> I truly want to learn so please be patient with me. I am not simply looking for quick fixes. I want to be able to write my own codes effectively.
>>>> In my mind, the above code should work because it is telling stata to look at each year in 'y', through the levels of twodigit. What am I missing?
> 
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