Re: st: forvalues foreach or while loop for sequential variables

[Roberto Ferrer <refp16@gmail.com>]

Elaborating a bit more, according to your example, you intend
something along the lines of:

*-------- begin code ---------
clear
set more off

input obs hosp14  hosp15 hosp16
1   1      5    5
2   6      9    6
3   8      1    3
4   5      5    5
5   2      2    2
6   2      9    1
7   1      1    1
8   3      1    7
9   3      0    4
end

list

* You have this in a loop
replace hosp15 = . if hosp15 == hosp14
list
*--------- end code ----------

but this compares only contiguos hospitals (14 with 15 and 15 with 16) but not
hospitals that are "further apart" (14 with 16). This is the case with
observation 2 in the example data I created. Your loop misses this comparison,
which I assume is important, i.e., you want hosp16 to equal .
for that observation because hosp14 already takes the value of 6. If
the assumption
is true, this is very problematic.

That said, now take a look at what your variables are evaluating to
inside the loop
(use -display- for this):

*-------- begin code ---------
clear
set more off

input obs hosp14  hosp15 hosp16
1   1      5    5
2   6      9    6
3   8      1    3
4   5      5    5
5   2      2    2
6   2      9    1
7   1      1    1
8   3      1    7
9   3      0    4
end

forvalues num=15/16 {
          display "hosp`num'" // your LHS
          display "hosp``num'-1'" // your RHS
          replace hosp`num'=. if hosp`num'==hosp``num'-1'
}

*--------- end code ----------

The LHS is OK, but the RHS is always evaluating to "hosp". You do not
specify your
error in your post (you mention "it didn't work" and you should be
specific about it)
but here I get this:

hosp ambiguous abbreviation
r(111);

Stata doesn't know if you're refering to hosp14, hosp15 or hosp16, and
so it halts
with an error.

Because I mess up easily with all the quotes (maybe someone will
clarify this point),
my strategy is to declare a new local and then use it for the RHS:

*---
forvalues num=15/16 {
          local newnum = `num' - 1
          replace hosp`num' = . if hosp`num' == hosp`newnum'
}
*---

I hope this helps.

On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 1:42 AM, Roberto Ferrer <refp16@gmail.com> wrote:
> Robbie,
>
> Here is one way avoiding the loop and using -reshape-.
>
> *-------begin code ---------
>
> clear
> set more off
>
> input obs hosp14  hosp15 hosp16
> 1   1      5    5
> 2   6      9    6
> 3   8      1    3
> 4   5      5    5
> 5   2      2    2
> 6   2      9    1
> 7   1      1    1
> 8   3      1    7
> 9   3      0    4
> end
>
> list
>
> * Reshape to manipulate
> reshape long hosp, i(obs) j(hnum)
>
> sort obs hosp hnum // important
> gen hosp2 = hosp
> by obs: replace hosp2 = . if hosp[_n] == hosp[_n-1]
>
> drop hosp
> rename hosp2 hosp
>
> * Take back to original form
> reshape wide hosp, i(obs) j(hnum)
> list // compare this with original input
>
> *------- end code ---------
>
> On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 12:41 AM, Robbie Katz <robbiekatz05@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I have a wide format data with variables with same text and different
>> numbers attached to them. The variables look like this: hospital1
>> hospital2 hospital3...hospital15. I want only unique values across
>> these variable for any one observation. For instance if both hospital
>> 15 and hospital14 have the same value say, 10, then I want to delete
>> 10 and replace it with "." for hospital15. Please let me know how I
>> can run a loop to achieve this.
>>
>> I tried the following but it didn't work:
>> forvalues num=2/15 {
>>           replace hospital`num'=. if hospital`num'==hospital``num'-1'
>>   }
>>
>> Please help,
>> Thanks!
>> *
>> *   For searches and help try:
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*
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