Read list of numbers from txt to use in a macro

[Jannic Cutura]

I have a txt file containing some numbers, say 1 5 6 17 18. I would like to import this to Stata and use those numbers as the steps in a four loop. Manually I can copy and paste the values

use data, clear

foreach i in 1 5 6 17 18 {
   % do something with the i's
}

Essentially I would like to programmatically do the same thing. Here is how I believe the ingredients in Stata should look like, but I have failed to properly finalize it:

import delim using "text.txt", delim(" ")
local `steps' transform data to local variable

use data, clear

foreach i in `steps' {
   % do something with the i's
}

The bold italic part is what I struggle with. Any ideas?

[eric_a_booth]

try using -levelsof- with the option to store results in the macro:

import delim using "text.txt", delim(" ")
levelsof stepsvar, loc(steps)

 use data, clear  
foreach i in `steps' {  
  % do something with the i's
}


**auto example:
sysuse auto2, clear
levelsof mpg, loc(steps)
sysuse auto, clear
di `"`steps'"'
foreach i in `steps' {
   di `"`i'"'
   list make if mpg == `i'
}

[Jannic Cutura]

This works perfectly, thanks a lot!