RE: st: passing indefinite no of arguments

[tashi lama <ltashi32@hotmail.com>]

That sounds great. Here is a slightly diff problem but with a similar flavor..Any idea?

 

I have a dataset as follows 

 

var1 var2 var3 va4 var5 

4     5    6     3   3 

 

I would like to enter variables as arugments and find the sum of the rest. Here is my attempt

 

 

*sum of the selected vars

tokenize `0'

local length: word count `0'

local varlist var*

forvalues i=1/length {

          local var_new=varlist-`i'    /* i am not so sure I can do this

          replace varlist=`var_new'

          drop var_new 

          }

    egen total=rowtotal(`varlist')

 

 

 

so if I run, 

do filename var2 var3 , I expect to get the sum of var1 var4 and var5. 

 

I am thinkin I could also do sth like this, 

 

tokenize `0'

local length:word count `0'

unab varlist:var*

forvalues i=1/length {

               local var_new:list varlist- `i'

                 }

egen total=rowtotal(`var_new')

 

 

 

Essentially I am trying to learn to subtract certain variables from the list of variables or a string. Any help will be highly appreciated...

 

Thanx, 

Tashi

 

 

  

----------------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:48:50 +0100
> Subject: Re: st: passing indefinite no of arguments
> From: njcoxstata@gmail.com
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
>
> di `: list sizeof 0 '
>
> Nick
>
> On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 8:52 PM, Maarten Buis <maartenlbuis@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 8:43 PM, tashi lama wrote:
> >> So, say I have a do file which will add the arguments and display
> >>
> >> *sum
> >>
> >> args a b c d
> >>
> >> di `a' +`b'+`c'+`d'
> >>
> >> This one is easy since I could pass 4 arguments a!
 , b, c and d and my do file will sum them. What if I don't know the no of arguments I am passing? I could have passed 2, 3, 5 or even 1 and find their sum.
> >
> > Here is a quick solution. The logic is that within a program a number
> > of locals are created. The local `0' contains all arguments, and the
> > local `1' contains the first argument, `2' the second, etc. This is
> > not very stable, e.g. when you call -tokenize- the locals `1', `2'
> > etc. will be replaced, but in a small program like the one below it is
> > an easy enough solution.
> >
> > *---------- begin example ------------
> > program drop _all
> > program define sumargs
> > // count the number of arguments
> > local k : word count!
  `0'
> >
> > // add them&#13

;
> > tempname sum
> > scalar `sum' = 0
> > forvalues i = 1/`k' {
> > scalar `sum' = `sum' + ``i''
> > }
> >
> > // display the result
> > di `sum'
> > end
> >
> > sumargs 2 3 7
> > sumargs 4
> > sumargs 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
> > *---------- end example -------------
> >
>
> *
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