Re: st: Re-assigning local macro values within loops after each iteration

[Stephen Cranney <cranney.stephen@gmail.com>]

Is there any way that I can retain the forvalues i = 1/`N' {

syntax while using the while loop to make it continue generating after
first generation?  The `i' reference here is how I connect the child
to not only the parent, so I would like to keep it if I could, but the
parent's date-of-giving-birth to calculate the child's date-of-birth,
etc. I have a hard time seeing how I can make these connections while
relying on the while loop. Here's an example of the syntax I mean:

        replace generationnumber=generationnumber[`i']+1 if newvar`i'==1
	replace parentid= id[`i'] if newvar`i'==1
	replace birthdate= date[`i'] if newvar`i'==1
	replace birthmonth= month[`i'] if newvar`i'==1
	replace birthyear= year[`i'] if newvar`i'==1

In response to the second concern, since each data point is a unique
month/year/id combination, doubling it basically replicates the
individual parent's characteristics (which I then change with
reference to the `i' value that I want to retain). The Xnewvar
variable I create deals with the problem of replicating the
replications, so in the end I have, for example, 1000 observations for
person 1, and 1000 observations for each of her children.

Thanks again,

Stephen

On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 12:36 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
> The Catch-22 here is that telling us part of your problem and showing
> us part of your code is not enough for anyone to get a complete
> understanding of your problem, while telling us all of your problem
> and showing us all of your code would not really help, as you would be
> unlikely to get anyone to invest time in understanding it all.
>
> That said, there is an important misunderstanding here. The effect of
>
> local N = _N
> forvalues i = 1/`N' {
>
> is to set up a loop with a particular upper limit that is fixed when
> the -forvalues- loop starts. Changing the number of observations after
> the loop has begun makes no difference to that, unless you change the
> number in such a way that the loop terminates for other reasons. In
> effect, you are "compiling" the number of observations into your code
> when the loop starts, so that's fixed code.
>
> My suggestion is that you may find it easier to set this up as a -while- loop.
>
> local notdone = 1
> local N = _N
>
> while `notdone' {
>
>
>
> }
>
> with code within the loop to change
>
> local notdone = 0
>
> as appropriate. That certainly permits the number of observations to change.
>
> That said, I am curious about the line
>
> expand 2, gen(newvar`i')
>
> which doubles the number of observations, just because of one
> childbirth. Sounds like something out of the Alien* films to me, but
> nothing like human demography? Shouldn't that -expand- be limited to
> expansion of certain observations?
>
> Nick
>
> On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 7:02 PM, Stephen Cranney
> <cranney.stephen@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm running a loop that loops over observations and generates new
>> observations with expand when one of the observations has a certain
>> value for one of the variables. (It's a population simulation that is
>> simulating a new person when each childbirth=1, each observation is a
>> month/year combination for a specific id). I initially set the macro
>> at N= _N, but I want to re-set the macro every time it loops, this way
>> the simulation can run past the second generation. As it is, it saves
>> the initial _N value and terminates when that value is reached, but I
>> would like to re-assign the macro so that it equals the value of _N
>> after each expansion, allowing it to run into multiple generations
>> until it terminates because of other parameters I've imposed.
>>
>> I have tried to place the macro within the loop to see if it will
>> re-do it, but it does not seem to be working. My syntax so far:
>>
>> local N = _N
>> forvalues i = 1/`N' {
>>         local N = _N
>>         if childbirth[`i'] == 1 {
>>         expand 2, gen(newvar`i')
>>         egen Xnewvar= rowtotal (newvar*)
>>         drop if Xnewvar>1
>>         drop if Xnewvar== 0 & generationnum!= 1
>>         drop Xnewvar
>>         replace generationnum=generationnum[`i']+1 if newvar`i'==1
>> ** A lot of code that differentiates the new child's demographic
>> characteristics from the parent's
>>     }
>> }
>>
> *
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