Local macro and foreach loop

[Anne Todd]

Hi Statalist,

I need to generate a new variable == 1 if any of the values in a sequence of 20 variables (for any individual observation) is between 1 and 4. Because there are so many variables I've been trying to do this with a foreach loop and local macro, but unfortunately the number that's "counting up" is in the middle of the variable name, not the end. Is there a concise way for me to do this (i.e., without listing out all the variable names)? Something like RX*A_wave1?

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input byte(rx1a_wave1 rx2a_wave1 rx3a_wave1 rx4a_wave1 rx5a_wave1 rx6a_wave1) long id
3 2 4 1 2 3 523425
3 2 4 1 2 3 523418
4 3 . 6 7 2 523411
3 2 3 1 1 1 523404
4 3 2 0 0 0 523397
5 2 4 5 2 1 523390
4 5 6 7 5 3 523383
6 1 6 7 3 3 523376
1 2 3 4 1 1 523369
4 3 4 6 7 2 523362
3 2 3 1 1 1 523355
4 3 2 0 0 0 523348
3 2 3 1 1 1 523341
7 7 5 0 3 0 523334
4 7 1 7 7 1 523327
5 3 4 5 3 1 523320
3 2 3 1 1 1 523313
1 7 5 0 0 0 523306
4 1 1 1 1 1 523299
5 . 4 5 2 1 523292
4 5 6 7 5 3 523285
6 1 6 7 5 3 523278
3 2 3 . 1 1 523271
4 5 6 7 5 3 523264
end

[Nick Cox]

gen wanted = 0 

foreach v of var rx*a_wave1 { 
    replace wanted = 1 if inrange(`v', 1, 4)
}