Update counting local macro conditionally

[Nate Tillern]

Hello everyone! I need to use a for-loop to iterate through about 300 excel sheets that follow a pattern where every 3 sheets covers a year, and the three sheets are for male, female, and total data. I need to use 2 local macros as count variables to keep track of the two identifying features of each excel sheet. However, I have run into issues, and after testing basic output in the command window, that you can see below, I am failing to understand Stata's logic:

. local x = 1

. display `x'
1

. local y = 5

. display `y'
5

. if `y' == 5 { local x = `x' + 1 }
. display `x'
1

I want Stata to be increasing local macro x to 2 if local macro y is equal to 3 here. It runs the if command I have set up without error, but does not actually update x. Can someone tell me how to have Stata check for the value of a local macro and update another or the same local macro, or run other commands, accordingly? Thank you very much for your time and help!

[Clyde Schechter]

It should be:

. local x = 1

. display `x'
1

.
. local y = 5

. display  `y'
5

.
. if `y' == 5 {
.         local x = `x' + 1
. }

. display `x'
2

If you read -help ifcmd- you will see:

If you put braces following the if or else,

1. the open brace must appear on the same line as the if or else;

2. nothing may follow the open brace except, of course, comments; the first command to be executed must appear on a new line;

3. the close brace must appear on a line by itself.