If statement with var names

[Henry Cust]

Hi,

I have several loops that run through a series of regressions for a set of dependent variables in the local macro. See below:

local vars var1 var2 ....

foreach depvar in `vars' {
reg `depvar' controlvars1.....
...
}

foreach depvar in `vars' {
reg `depvar' controlvars2 .....
...
}

I am trying to exclude a specific dep var from only 1 of the loops without setting a new local macro. My current code looks like this:

local vars var1 var2 ....

foreach depvar in `vars' {
if `depvar' != var1 {
reg `depvar' controlvars1.....
...
}

However, this does not work. Is there a way to deal with this within the if statement I have? Another iteration that also don't work:

if "`depvar'" != "var1"

Another note - I would like this to be able to include multiple variables in the excluded list.

I know I could reset the local without the excluded var but this is not my preference for this workflow.

I'd appreciate any help statalist can provide.
Henry

[Henry Cust]

n/a

[Henry Cust]

n/a

[Nick Cox]

if "`depvar'" != "var1"

is precisely what I would recommend given your taste, so in what sense does it not work?

From what I understand of your context you want to define the local macro because you are going to use it repeatedly; otherwise i see no virtue in defining a local macro only to use it once and immediately. That is, there is no virtue in this

local vars1 var1 var2
local controlvars1 cvar1 cvar2

foreach depvar of local vars1  {
reg `depvar' `controlvars1'
...
}

local vars2 var2 var3
local controlvars2 cvar2 cvar3

foreach depvar of local vars2 {
reg `depvar' `controlvars2'
...
}

rather than this:

foreach depvar in var1 var2 {
reg `depvar' cvar1 cvar2
...
}

loreach depvar in var2 var3  {
reg `depvar' cvar2 cvar3
...
}

[Henry Cust]

I noticed a few strange errors since writing this, including the code excluding other variables from the loops. It turns out a restart was required. Thanks for looking into it Nick.

For clarity to other readers, as Nick suggests, the following does work.

if "`depvar'" != "var1" {