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

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

This picks up the syntax Robbie was missing, namely

`=exp'

for some expression exp, but it won't work entirely as desired.
Suppose -hospital7- -hospital8- -hospital9- are all 42. Then
-hospital8- is changed to missing because it is the same as
-hospital7-, but next time around the loop -hospital9- of 42 is
compared with missing and nothing is changed.

Nick
njcoxstata@gmail.com


On 31 October 2013 07:32, A Loumiotis <antonis.loumiotis@gmail.com> wrote:
> another way without defining a new local would be:
>
> replace hosp`num'=. if hosp`num'==hosp`=`num'-1'
>
> Antonis
>
> On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 8:52 AM, Roberto Ferrer <refp16@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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!
>>>> *
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