How to execute a do file with local macros and calling other do files within the file which inturn use those macros??

[Darren White]

Hi Stata listers

I am trying to work with local and perhaps global macros in do-files.

The code below works when it is run in its entirety. If you put the code nominated (marked by ******) in a separate do file and call it by:

do "dofilename.do"

Nothing happens. I tried replacing local with global for the macros (indv, strv etc) and this also didn't work.

Almost certain it is the local and global issue but not sure how to fix.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks very much.

Darren

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________
use "Q:\STATA\Surveys\2013-14\Adult\data_pooling_process\Data\SRHS2013_14_MAS TER_TEMP.dta", clear
svyset [pweight= pwt_18plus_FINAL]
gen dumif=1
local indv daily_smoke
local strv persons rsex agecat_nhs
local if1 edu_sum marri_sum
local if2 dumif
local geov lga2014_FINAL

************************************************** **********************************
//CONTENT FOR A SEPARATE DO FILE BELOW
************************************************** **********************************

mata
cmndf=""
colf=("","","")
estf=(.,.,.,.,.,.)
end
foreach ifs1 in `if1' {
levelsof `ifs1', local(ifl1)
foreach l1 of local ifl1 {
foreach ifs2 in `if2' {
levelsof `ifs2', local(ifl2)
foreach l2 of local ifl2 {
foreach geo in `geov' {
levelsof `geo', local(geog)
foreach g of local geog {
foreach ind in `indv' {
foreach str in `strv' {
capture estpost svy: tab `str' `ind' if `ifs1'==`l1' & `ifs2'==`l2' & `geo'==`g', row
if _rc==0 {
estpost svy: tab `str' `ind' if `ifs1'==`l1' & `ifs2'==`l2' & `geo'==`g', row notot
mat t=e(row)\e(se)\e(lb)\e(ub)\e(obs)\e(count)
mat t=t'
local cmnd=e(cmdline)
local wtvar=e(wvar)
mata: cmd=st_local("cmnd")
mata: wtv=st_local("wtvar")
mata: cmnd = J(cols(st_matrix("e(b)")),1,cmd)
mata: wtvar =J(cols(st_matrix("e(b)")),1,wtv)
mata: est=st_matrix("t")
mata: col=st_matrixcolstripe("e(b)")
mata: col=col,wtvar
mata: colf=colf\col
mata: estf=estf\est
mata: cmndf=cmndf\cmnd
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
************************************************** ******************************************
************************************************** ******************************************

[Maarten Buis]

when working with locals and multiple do files there are two tricks that can be useful:

The first trick is you can use include instead of do. That way the included .do-file acts as if it were part of the main .do-file and local macros in the main .do-file are available in the included file.

The second trick is that you can type something like do somefile.do foo bar, where foo bar can be anything you want to pass on to the .do-file somefile.do. The first argument (in this case foo) will be stored in the local macro `1' and the second argument (in this case bar) will be stored in the local macro `2', etc.

[Darren White]

Thanks Maarten, much appreciated, a handy command.

[Eder Gonzalez]

Useful trick