Assigning set of values/names to every 1-10 observation

[Saini Smriti]

Hello,
I need to assign a set of names in one particular order to the first 10 observations. I want to follow the same pattern for the remaining observation. I have around 700 observations in the data. Here is a code example for 3 observation set:

gen xx = _n : 

gen name = "nick" if xx == 1 
replace name = "tina" if xx == 2 
replace name = "pam" if xx == 3

I want to repeat these names for the next 4-6th observations, and then the 9th-12 observations, till the 700th observation. Please help with this.


Thanks,
Smriti

[Nick Cox]

Several ways to do it. Here's one:

. clear

. set obs 30
number of observations (_N) was 0, now 30

. egen seq = seq(), to(3)

. gen wanted = word("nick tina pam", seq)


. list , sep(3)

     +--------------+
     | seq   wanted |
     |--------------|
  1. |   1     nick |
  2. |   2     tina |
  3. |   3      pam |
     |--------------|
  4. |   1     nick |
  5. |   2     tina |
  6. |   3      pam |
     |--------------|
  7. |   1     nick |
  8. |   2     tina |
  9. |   3      pam |
     |--------------|
 10. |   1     nick |
 11. |   2     tina |
 12. |   3      pam |
     |--------------|
 13. |   1     nick |
 14. |   2     tina |
 15. |   3      pam |
     |--------------|
 16. |   1     nick |
 17. |   2     tina |
 18. |   3      pam |
     |--------------|
 19. |   1     nick |
 20. |   2     tina |
 21. |   3      pam |
     |--------------|
 22. |   1     nick |
 23. |   2     tina |
 24. |   3      pam |
     |--------------|
 25. |   1     nick |
 26. |   2     tina |
 27. |   3      pam |
     |--------------|
 28. |   1     nick |
 29. |   2     tina |
 30. |   3      pam |
     +--------------+

[Saini Smriti]

Hi Nick,

Thanks a lot for the code. I should have specified the exact names I needed earlier. So the names are "nick_ten" "tina_john".
When I run the code you provided, with these names, Stata gives the error of invalid name. The underscore here is creating the problem but I need it in the names.
I read up on 'seq' but could not figure out how to work with the special character i.e. underscore.

Please help with this.

[Nick Cox]

Please help me to help you by giving a concrete example. Underscores won’t undermine the logic of my earlier code.

[Saini Smriti]

Hi Nick,
I had made an error in the code which I just spotted. It works perfectly now. Apologies!