Strpos and Local

[Trevor Andrew]

I would like to define a local based on a string in another local:

foreach outcome in out_num out_can {
      if strpos("`outcome","num")>0 local title = "Title A"
      else if local title = "Title B"
}

But I get the error local not found.

[Andrew Musau]

Note the -if- following the -else- in the penultimate line of the code. Also, "outcome" is not properly referenced in the 2nd line of the code (missing right quotation mark).

foreach outcome in out_num out_can {
      if strpos("`outcome'","num")>0 local title = "Title A"
      else local title = "Title B"
}

At the end of the loop, the local title will correspond to the final outcome in the foreach list, i.e., "out_can". You probably need some intermediate display commands to know whether the earlier elements in the list satisfy the condition.

foreach outcome in out_num out_can {
      if strpos("`outcome'","num")>0 local title = "Title A"
      else local title = "Title B"
      display "For outcome `outcome', title= `title'"
}

[Hemanshu Kumar]

There's actually another error too. Your code should read (note the closing single quote after outcome):

foreach outcome in out_num out_can {
      if strpos("`outcome'","num")>0 local title = "Title A"
      else local title = "Title B"
}

[Trevor Andrew]

I'm confused why else if doesn't work in this case. If I use the following code it works.

foreach depvar in depvar1 depvar2 {
    if "`depvar'" == "depvar1" local spec = "original"
    else if "`depvar'" == "depvar2" local spec = "interacted"
}

[Andrew Musau]

This is a condition to be evaluated within an else command:

else if "`depvar'" == "depvar2"

whereas this is a command to do something.

else local title = "Title B"

[Nick Cox]

Although the main example keeps changing, and it may be simplified out of a more complicated context, I cannot follow quite why a loop is being used here at all. In particular, in the corrected form

 
 foreach outcome in out_num out_can {       if strpos("`outcome'","num")>0 local title = "Title A"       else local title = "Title B" }

out_num is first used, but the assignment first time round is ignored: the loop will exit with a title based on the contents of out_can

I would be happy to learn that the answers here are applicable to the associated real example.