Create local variable list with *

[Milan Quentel]

I have a large number of variables starting with either with urb7, urb8 or urb9. I would like to create a local list that includes all these variables, but excludes variables such as urb3.

I tried

local urban urb7* urb8* urb9*
di `urban'

which gives out a syntax error and

local urban urb7* urb8* urb9*
di "`urban'"

which gives out "urb7* urb8* urb9*".

I would like to be able to see the full list of variables, so I can get the list working in a loop afterwards (but that's another story).

So, how do I get the list to contain: urb7_arbitrary_text1, urb7_arbitrary_text2, urb8_arbitrary_text1, and so on?

Thank you very much.

Best regards,
Milan

[Nick Cox]

help unab

[Maarten Buis]

You can do that with the unab command, see help unab.

unab varlist : urb7_*_text1 urb7_*_text2 urb8_*_text1
di `"|`varlist'|"'

I usually use compound quotes (`" and "') when displaying the content of local macros just in case the local macro itself contains quotes, and I usually display it between ||, so that I can see any leading or trailing white spaces.

[Milan Quentel]

Thank you, Nick Cox. That was what I was looking for.

If anyone later finds this thread and has the same (admittedly, a bit simple-minded) question, the code that got it working for me is:

unab urban : urb7* urb8* urb9*
di "`urban'"

Thanks again.

p.s. Did not see your response before posting, Maarten Buis. Now we have two solutions, I hope that's okay. Thanks also for the tips with compound quotes and |.