Invalid syntax error when combining foreach and logout ttable2

[dara wang]

Hi,

I am trying to output the ttable2 results of different groups. The code I am writing is as follows:

foreach group of grouplist new1 sand sean female highschool{
logout, save (E:\Data\stata\des_new\`group') excel replace: ttable2 weight long education numest perc, by(`group')
}

But the stata keeps saying "invalid syntax".

I have no problem to run:

logout, save (E:\Data\stata\des_new\new1) excel replace: ttable2 weight long education  numest perc, by(new1)

I will appreciate it very much if someone can tell me what is wrong here. Thanks!

[Carlo Lazzaro]

Dara:
what if you replace

by(`group')

with

by(group)

[Nick Cox]

grouplist is quite illegal here.

After

of 

only certain reserved words are allowed in foreach statements, namely one of the following forms:

foreach lname of local lmacname {

foreach lname of global gmacname {

foreach lname of varlist varlist {

foreach lname of newlist newvarlist {

foreach lname of numlist numlist {

The over-arching principle is that whatever is not allowed is forbidden,

I know nothing in detail about logout or ttable2 (which you are asked to explain as community-contributed commands) but a loop starting

foreach group in new1 sand sean female highschool {

has a better chance of being legal, except that the backslash before a local macro name is a no-no-no, although subtle unless you have read

https://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf....iclenum=pr0042

or

[U] 18.3.11 Constructing Windows filenames using macros

Here is the latter, copied in its entirety.

Stata uses the \ character to tell its parser not to expand macros.

Windows uses the \ character as the directory path separator.

Mostly, there is no problem using a \ in a filename.

However, if you are writing a program that contains a Windows path in macro path and a filename in fname, do not assemble the final result as

`path'\`fname'

because Stata will interpret the \ as an instruction to not expand `fname'. Instead, assemble the final result as

`path'/`fname'

Stata understands / as a directory separator on all platforms.