stata() in Mata loops

[Dennis Albrecht]

Hello everyone,

I nee to use some stata commands inside a mata loop and it seems not to work.

For example if I run:

clear mata
mata

k=2
stata("timer on 1")
stata("sleep " + strofreal(k) + "000")
stata("timer off 1")
stata("timer list 1")
stata("timer clear")

end

the code executes without problems. But if I use a loop with the same expretions:

clear mata
mata

for (k=1; 5<=k; k++) {
stata("timer on 1")
stata("sleep " + strofreal(k) + "000")
stata("timer off 1")
stata("timer list 1")
stata("timer clear")
}
end

the code executes seemingly without problems too and does not show any error code.
But it does not wait for even one second.

Do I miss something or is there an other way to use stata() inside a mata loop?

[Alberto Dorantes]

Dennis, try the following in your loop:

for (k=1; k<=5; k++ ) {
...
}

[Dennis Albrecht]

Alberto, thank you for replying. Unfortunately, your post does not help me to understand why my code is not working.

[German Rodriguez]

Compare your 5 <= k with Alberto's k <= 5. When you start with k=1 the condition 5 <= 1 is false and the loop terminates immediately.

[Dennis Albrecht]

Now it works like it should.
Thank you Alberto and German Rodriguez!