For loop to create variables based on conditions

[George Tsatsoulis]

Dear Statalist members,

this is my first post here and I am quite new to Stata so please don't be too harsh on me haha.
I would like to create some variables based on a conditions, I have a panel dataset with T=20 and N=19 concerning the member states of the Eurozone, I am employing a panel data threshold methodology and I have already estimated my model but due to misspecification problems I am thinking about different estimates, thus I am thinking about creating the regime-dependent coefficients manually and run for instance a regression with PCSE.
My piece of code is the following but it does not work, any good recommendations/advice would be appreciated.

#the three regimes
by Country: gen q1=0
by Country: gen q2=0
by Country: gen q3=0

# a for loop

foreach x in gross_debt_L1{
              replace q1=gross_debt_L1  if gross_debt_L1<=95.782
              replace q2=gross_debt_L1  if gross_debt_L1<=95.782 & gross_debt_L1 <=120.038
              replace q3=gross_debt_L1  if gross_debt_L1>120.038
}

Any

[George Ford]

don't think you need a loop. Not using the x for anything.

and you are simply assigning a known variable value to new variables. do you want the mean?

[Nick Cox]

As George Ford implies the code boils down to

gen q1=gross_debt_L1  if gross_debt_L1<=95.782  

gen q2=gross_debt_L1  if gross_debt_L1<=95.782 & gross_debt_L1 <=120.038  

gen q3=gross_debt_L1  if gross_debt_L1>120.038

unless you really do need zeros rather than missings, which you could get with

mvencode q1 q2 q3, mv(0)

You're trying to put values of 95.782 in two classes, which probably won't bite, but it is a little inconsistent. More importanly, I imagine that your code should be

gen q2=gross_debt_L1 if gross_debt_L1>95.782 & gross_debt_L1 <=120.038

[George Tsatsoulis]

Nick Cox and George Ford thank you very much for your insight, I really do need zeros because a zero means that the regime dependent coefficient is zero since its value is assigned based on an Indicator function I(q_i_t<γ).
This last piece of code is actually very helpful