Replacing observations with conditions using loop

[Carlos Alvarez]

Hi, I need some help

I'm working with migration data and I'd like to replace the values of the variable p10 by adding "01" to the observation by using a loop.

This is what I want to do:

replace p10 = 101 if p10==1
replace p10 = 201 if p10==2
replace p10 = 301 if p10==3
replace p10 = 401 if p10==4
replace p10 = 501 if p10==5
replace p10 = 601 if p10==6
replace p10 = 701 if p10==7
replace p10 = 801 if p10==8
replace p10 = 901 if p10==9
replace p10 = 1001 if p10==10

This is the loop that is not working

forvalues i = 1/10 {
replace p10 = `i'01 if p10 = `i'
}

[Rich Goldstein]

I don't see any reason for a loop here; why not just:

replace p10=(p10*100)+1

[William Lisowski]

Rich demonstrates good technique in post #2 - an ounce of analysis is worth a pound of loops, as the old programming adage goes.

The problem in the code in post #1 that led to it not working is that

replace p10 = `i'01 if p10 = `i'

should read

replace p10 = `i'01 if p10 == `i'

because a double equal sign is used to denote comparison, while a single equal sign is used to denote assignment of a value to a variable.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Thanks for your prompt reply, you are right. It works