Invalid name in loop

[Mark Pham]

Hello everyone,

I have a part of short code that generate invalid name but I couldn't figure out why. My goal is to generate a long varlist to use in subsequent. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks a lot!

set more off, permanently

use unbalanced.1--16.dta, clear

local VarsLabor LegalEntityCode PersonnelEducationExpenses Employment TotalProfit IndustrySalesValue_currentpr ///
        LaborUnionPersons LaborUnionExpense
foreach x of local VarsLabor{
    foreach i of numlist 1/16{
    local `x'l "`x'l" "`x'`i'"
    }
    dis "``x'l'" ,
    local VarsLaborFull "`VarsLaborFull'" "``x'l'"
}

display "`VarsLaborFull'"
keep `VarsLaborFull'

The error return is:

"  invalid name

[Nick Cox]

The beginning and end " will be stripped as delimiters. That's not what you want. The full machinery for this includes compound double quotes, but I think this may be what you want:

local VarsLabor LegalEntityCode PersonnelEducationExpenses Employment TotalProfit IndustrySalesValue_currentpr ///
        LaborUnionPersons LaborUnionExpense
  
foreach x of local VarsLabor {
    forval i = 1/16 {
        local `x'l `x'l `x'`i'
    }
    local VarsLaborFull `VarsLaborFull' ``x'l'
}

display "`VarsLaborFull'"

[Mark Pham]

Thank you so much! I did not fully understand the role of " " in the macro because oftentimes it is not necessary. Am I wrong about this?

btw: I misst a ` ' in the

 local `x'l ``x'l' `x'`i'