Re: st: passing indefinite no of arguments

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

Sorry for previous premature post.

That in turn is easily broken once "the rest" is no longer
homogeneous. Still, this is a sketch of what you seem to aiming for.
Your idea of
a do-file to do this is incomplete as a name for the new variable is
needed. Warning: code not tested.

 program sumrest
      version 8.2
      syntax varlist(numeric) [if]  [in] , Generate(string)
      marksample touse, novarlist
      qui count if `touse'
      if r(N) == 0 error 2000
      confirm new var `generate'

      unab all : _all
     local varlist : all - varlist
     egen `generate' = rowtotal(`varlist') if `touse'
end

sumrest var2 var3, generate(not2or3)

Nick

> On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 8:26 PM, tashi lama <ltashi32@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello Nick,
>>
>>   Sorry for not being clear enough. The problem with this code is you have to edit the code everytime you want to change the variables to be ignored. That is exactly why I wanted to pass those variables as arguments. So, again I wanted to be able to say
>>
>>
>>
>> do filename var2 var3    and expect to get the sum of the rest.
>>
>>
>>
>> What I am really trying to do is understand how to do this and use it for the actual program that I am working. I didn't write the actual program because it is too long and I am afraid it might bore you guys. I would be more than happy to put the actual program and actual problem I am facing if you are interested. But, I am going to be using similar concept somewhere in my actual program.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you very much for your time,
>>
>> Tashi
>>
>>
>>
>>> Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:47:55 +0100
>>> Subject: Re: st: passing indefinite no of arguments
>>> From: njcoxstata@gmail.com
>>> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
>>>
>>> Frankly, this is very confused. You need to keep separate macro
>>> manipulations and variable calculations.
>>>
>>> Also, thisn't really a problem that needs a program or a do-file at all.
>>>
>>> local myvars : var2 var3
>>> unab all : var*
>>> local rest : list all - myvars
>>> egen rest_total = rowtotal(`rest')
>>>
>>> I advise trying simpler problems and studying the User's manual much
>>> more slowly and carefully.
>>>
>>> Nick
>>>
>>> On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 2:10 PM, tashi lama <ltashi32@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > 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...
>>> >

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