I want to write six temp data files from my original data keeping the following variables:
temp1: v1-v18
temp2: v1-v5 v19-v31
temp3: v1-v5 v32-v44
temp4: v1-v5 v45-v57
temp5: v1-v5 v58-v70
temp6: v1-v5 v71-v84
I have tried the following:
forvalues i =1(1)6 {
preserve
local j = 6 + (`i'-1)*13
local k = `j'+12
keep v1-v18 if `j'==6
keep v1-v5 v`i'-v`k' if `i'>6 & `j'<71
keep v1-v5 v71-v84 if `j'==71
export delimited using temp`i'.csv, delimiter(";") novarnames replace
restore
}
I get an invalid syntax error. The problem lies with the keep statements. Specifically the if condition with a local macro seems to be against syntax rules.
I think part of your confusion is due to misunderstanding the if qualifier vs the if command.
The if command evaluates an expression: if that expression is true, it executes what follows. The if command should be used to evaluate a single expression, in this case, the value of a macro.
You might use an if qualifier, for example, when you want to regress y x if x > 2 or replace x = . if x <= 2 etc. See here for a short description.
Your syntax has other issues too. You cannot have code following on the same line as the open brace in your forvalues loop, or again on the same line as your closing brace. You also use the local i to condition your keep. I think you mean to use j here, as i simply serves to iterate the loop, not identify a variable suffix.
Further, the logic here seems to work, but doesn't seem very general or efficient. I imagine there is a better way to do this but I don't have time to play around with it at the moment - perhaps an update later.
In any case, I think the correct syntax most analogous to what you have tried is something like the following.
clear *
set more off
set obs 5
forvalues i = 1/84 {
gen v`i' = runiform()
}
forvalues i =1/6 {
preserve
local j = 6 + (`i'-1)*13
local k = `j'+12
if `j' == 6 {
keep v1-v18
}
else if `j' > 6 & `j' < 71 {
keep v1-v5 v`j'-v`k'
}
else keep v1-v5 v71-v84
ds
di
restore
}
I use ds here to simply list the variables in the data followed by di do display a blank line as a separator, but you could simply plug back in your export and it should work just fine.
Another thing to consider if you truly want temp data files is to consider using tempfile so that you aren't writing anything to disk. You might use
forvalues i = 1/6 {
tempfile temp`i'
// other commands
save `temp`i''
}
This will create six Stata data files temp1 - temp6 that are held in memory until the program terminates.
Related
In Stata I am trying to repeat code inside an if qualifier using perhaps a forvalues loop. My code looks something like this:
gen y=0
replace y=1 if x_1==1 & x_2==1 & x_3==1 & x_4==1
Instead of writing the & x_i==1 statement every time for each variable, I want to do it using a loop, something like this:
gen y=0
replace y=1 if forvalues i=1/4{x_`i'==1 &}
LATER EDIT:
Would it be possible to create a local in the line of this with the elements added together:
forvalues i=1/4{
local text_`i' "x_`i'==1 &"
display "`text_`i''"
}
And then call it at the if qualifier ?
Although you use the term "if statement" all your code is phrased in terms of if qualifiers, which aren't commands or statements. (Your use of the term "statement" is looser than customary, but that doesn't affect an answer directly.)
You can't insert loops in if qualifiers.
See for the differences
help if
help ifcmd
The entire example
gen y = 0
replace y = 1 if x==1 | x==2 | x==3 | x==4
would be better as
gen y = inlist(x, 1, 2, 3, 4)
or (dependent possibly on whatever values are allowed)
gen y = inrange(x, 1, 4)
A loop solution could be
gen y = 0
quietly forval i = 1/4 {
replace y = 1 if x == `i'
}
We can't discuss whether inlist() or inrange() would or would not be a solution for your real problem if you don't show to us.
I usually don't like - in Nick's terms - to write code to write code. I see an immediate, though not elegant nor 'heterodox', solution to your issue. The whole thing amounts to generate an indicator function for all your indicators, and use it with your if qualifier.
Implicit assumptions, which make this a bad, non-generalizable solution, are: 1) all variables are dummies, and you need them to be == 1, and 2) variable names are conveniently ordered 1 to N (although, if that is not the case, you can easily change the forv into a 'foreach var of varlist etc.')
g touse = 1
forv i =1/30{
replace touse = touse * x_'i'
}
<your action> if touse == 1
I have 900 files that include 1,000 variables named v1 – v1000 and 1 file that includes 43 variables named v1 – v43.
My code in Stata initially opens each file using a foreach loop that imports the files while erasing the first line for each file (not shown here).
Then, I use this nested forval loop to rename variables:
forval j = 1/1000 {
local varname = strtoname(v`j'[1])
rename v`j' x`varname'
}
This code doesn’t work well because my last file doesn’t have the variables named v44 – v1000.
I need a code snippet that can read 1,000 variables for the first 900 files and 43 variables for the last file. I tried with c(k) (i.e. counting the number of variables in each file before looping):
forval j = 1/ `c(k)' {
local varname = strtoname(v`j'[1])
rename v`j' x`varname'
}
However, this doesn’t work. Any suggestions?
A very easy, not very elegant method would be to check whether the variable exists with capture:
foreach dta in `allfiles' {
use `dta', clear
forval j = 1/1000 {
local varname = strtoname(v`j'[1])
cap confirm variable v`j'
if (_rc == 0) rename v`j' x`varname'
}
save `dta', replace
}
I am using two-level loops to create a set of variables. But Stata reports a syntax error.
forvalues i = 1/5 {
local to `i'+1
dis `to'
forvalues j = `to'/6{
dis `j'
gen e_`i'_`j' = .
}
}
I could not figure out where I made the syntax error.
And a follow-up question. I would like to change how the number of loops are coded in the example above. Right now, it's hard-coded as 5 and 6. But I want to make it based on the data. For instance,I am coding as below:
sum x
scalar x_max_1 = `r(max)'-1
scalar x_max_2 = `r(max)'
forvalues i = 1/x_max_1 {
local to = `i'+1
dis `to'
forvalues j = `to'/x_max_2{
dis `j'
gen e_`i'_`j' = .
}
}
However, Stata reports a syntax error in this case. I am not sure why. The scalar is a numeric variable. Why would the code above not work?
Your code would be better as
forvalues i = 1/5 {
local to = `i' + 1
forvalues j = `to'/6 {
gen e_`i'_`j' = .
}
}
With your code you went
local to `i' + 1
so first time around the loop to becomes the string or text 1 + 1 which is then illegal as an argument to forvalues. That is, a local definition without an = sign will result in copying of text, not evaluation of the expression.
The way you used display could not show you this error because display used that way will evaluate expressions to the extent possible. If you had insisted that the macro was a string with
di "`to'"
then you would have seen its contents.
Another way to do it is
forvalues i = 1/5 {
forvalues j = `= `i' + 1'/6 {
gen e_`i'_`j' = .
}
}
EDIT
You asked further about
sum x
scalar x_max_1 = `r(max)'-1
scalar x_max_2 = `r(max)'
forvalues i = 1/x_max_1 {
and quite a lot can be said about that. Let's work backwards from one of various better solutions:
sum x, meanonly
forvalues i = 1/`= r(max) - 1' {
or another, perhaps a little more transparent:
sum x, meanonly
local max = r(max) - 1
forvalues i = 1/`max' {
What are the messages here:
If you only want the maximum, specify meanonly. Agreed: the option name alone does not imply this. See https://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf.html?articlenum=st0135 for more.
What is the point of pushing the r-class result r(max) into a scalar? You already have what you need in r(max). Educate yourself out of this with the following analogy.
I have what I want. Now I put it into a box. Now I take it out of the box. Now I have what I want again. Come to think of it, the box business can be cut.
The box is the scalar, two scalars in this case.
forvalues won't evaluate scalars to give you the number you want. That will happen in many languages, but not here.
More subtly, forvalues doesn't even evaluate local references or similar constructs. What happens is that Stata's generic syntax parser does that for you before what you typed is passed to forvalues.
I am attempting to reproduce the following in stata. This is a scatter plot of average portfolio returns (y axis) and predicted retruns (x axis).
To do so, I need your help on how I can extract the intercepts from 25 regressions into one variable? I am currently running the 25 portfolio regressions as follows. I have seen that parmest can potentially do this but can't get it to work with the forval. Many thanks
forval s = 1 / 5 {
forval h = 1 / 5 {
reg S`s'H`h' Mkt_Rf SMB HML
}
}
I don't know what your data look like, but maybe something like this will work:
gen intercepts = .
local i = 1
forval s = 1 / 5 {
forval h = 1 / 5 {
reg S`s'H`h' Mkt_Rf SMB HML
// assign the ith observation of intercepts
// equal to the regression constant
replace intercepts = _b[_cons] if _n == `i'
// increment i
local ++i
}
}
The postfile series of commands can be very helpful in a situation like this. The commands allows you to store results in a separate data set without losing the data in memory.
You can start with this as a simple example. This code will produce a Stata data set called "results.dta" with the variables s h and constant with a record of each regression.
cap postclose results
postfile results s h constant using results.dta, replace
forval s = 1 / 5 {
forval h = 1 / 5 {
reg S`s'H`h' Mkt_Rf SMB HML
loc c = _b[_cons]
post results (`s') (`h') (`c')
}
}
postclose results
use results, clear
I would like to look up a value/code associated with a label, and store that value in a scalar or local macro. While the information I want is stored in the definition of the label vector, apparently I need to go through some contortions to get it.
Extending Roberto Ferrer's answer to my last question, I came up with this approach:
// sample data
clear
input str5 mystr int mynum
a 5
b 5
b 6
c 4
end
encode mystr, gen(myfactor)
// get code for "b"
gen tmp = 0
replace tmp = myfactor if myfactor == "b":myfactor
sort tmp
scalar bcode = tmp[_N]
This seems woefully inefficient in terms of data manipulation and code maintenance, especially considering how the information I want is already saved (and viewable with label list).
This uses labellist, from SSC. Download using ssc install labellist.
clear
set more off
*----- example data -----
input str5 mystr
"good"
"bad"
"bad"
"regular"
end
encode mystr, gen(myfactor)
*----- what you want -----
labellist
local faclab = r(myfactor_labels)
local facval = r(myfactor_values)
// get # for "good"
local i : list posof "good" in faclab
local j : word `i' of `facval'
display "`j'"