IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tsj/stataj/y18y2018i4p999-1015.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Speaking Stata: Loops, again and again

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas J. Cox

    (Durham University)

Abstract

Two commands in official Stata, foreach and forvalues, provide structures for looping through lists of values (variable names, numbers, arbitrary text) and repeating commands using members of those lists in turn. These com- mands may be used interactively, and none is restricted to use in Stata programs. They are explained and compared in some detail with a variety of examples. In addition, a self-contained exposition is given on local macros, understanding of which is needed for use of foreach and forvalues. This column is a revision of the column “How to face lists with fortitude”, which appeared in Stata Journal 2: 202–222 (2002). (The bizarre bibliographical details are too, too extraordinary not to be flagged but were pure happenstance.) The presentation here has been trimmed of now historic content and corrected, improved, and updated in several minor details.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas J. Cox, 2020. "Speaking Stata: Loops, again and again," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 20(4), pages 999-1015, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:tsj:stataj:y:18:y:2018:i:4:p:999-1015
    DOI: 10.1177/1536867X20976340
    Note: to access software from within Stata, net describe http://www.stata-journal.com/software/sj20-4/pr0074/
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.stata-journal.com/article.html?article=pr0074
    File Function: link to article purchase
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1536867X20976340?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tsj:stataj:y:18:y:2018:i:4:p:999-1015. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F. Baum or Lisa Gilmore (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.stata-journal.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.