while error

[John Ling]

clear
set obs 10
gen randnum = .
local i = 1
while `i' < 11 {
local r = ceil(runiform()*100)
if !inlist(r, randnum) {
replace randnum = r in `i'
local i = `i' + 1
}
else{
local i = `i'
}
}



. do "C:\Users\good\AppData\Local\Temp\STD668c_000000.t mp"

. while `i' < 11 {
2. local r = ceil(runiform()*100)
3. if !inlist(r, randnum) {
4. replace randnum = r in `i'
5. local i = `i' + 1
6. }
7. else{
8. local i = `i'
9. }
10. }
<11 invalid name
r(198);

The error invalid name?Why?I even check it by the example in help.

[Jared Greathouse]

Because I ain't defined for the next do file. It appears like you define it above, in what I can only imagine is the script before your lower code runs, but i is undefined there so Stata doesn't register it. Oh, and please, write your code in

Code blocks like this,  //
so everyone can read it nicely.

[John Ling]

This is my do file.

clear
set obs 10
gen randnum = .
local i = 1
while `i' < 11 {
local r = ceil(runiform()*100)
if !inlist(r, randnum) {
replace randnum = r in `i'
local i = `i' + 1
}
else{
local i = `i'
}
}

[Nick Cox]

Once defined you need to refer to local macros using punctuation like this

`r'

There may be other bugs. I see one: the inlist() call won't look at all the values in the variable named.

The problem addressed is wanting 10 random integers between 1 and 100 that are different.

Here is a way to do that.

. clear

. set obs 100
number of observations (_N) was 0, now 100

. gen wanted = _n

. set seed 314159265

. gen double foo = runiform()

. sort foo

. list wanted in 1/10

     +--------+
     | wanted |
     |--------|
  1. |     82 |
  2. |      3 |
  3. |     57 |
  4. |     30 |
  5. |     92 |
     |--------|
  6. |     67 |
  7. |     10 |
  8. |     87 |
  9. |     19 |
 10. |     36 |
     +--------+

[Dirk Enzmann]

You did respond to Jared Greathouse but did not follow his advice to write your code in code blocks (nor did you ask how to do this): Copy your code (or do-file) into a post, mark the commands just copied, and click on the hash (#) symbol (in the top of your "write" window) to wrap the tags around your selected text. Hence, read the full advice you get and ask if you don't understand it.

[Nick Cox]

Here is another way to do it with Mata.

. mata
------------------------------------------------- mata (type end to exit) ---------------------------
: rseed(31459265)

: wanted = jumble(1::100)

: wanted[1::10,]
         1
     +------+
   1 |  48  |
   2 |  20  |
   3 |  92  |
   4 |  95  |
   5 |  68  |
   6 |  86  |
   7 |  44  |
   8 |  87  |
   9 |  40  |
  10 |  47  |
     +------+