referring to multiple variables in st_store

[charlie wong]

hello

In the following st_store, wondering if there is a better way to refer to the variables (such as through varlist a*) , instead of listing each one individually in a cumbersome way..

clear
set obs 10
mata
var = ("a1", "b2",  "a3", "b4",  "a5")
st_addvar(("float"), var)
st_store(.,("a1", "a3", "a5"),J(10,3,1))  //

end

Thanks!

[Christophe Kolodziejczyk]

I have only version 12, so I don't know whether Stata corp. has changed the behavior of st_store() since to allow the use of wildcards or abbreviations of variable list. I guess it isn't the case.
It is unlike st_data() which allows it.
It is possible to work around this problem by creating a function which uses the Stata unab command and returns the unabbreviated list in a rowvector of strings. The function doesn't handle the case where the variable list doesn't exist.

clear
set obs 10
clear mata
mata:
string rowvector unab(string abvlist)
{
        stata("unab vlist: "+ abvlist)
        return(tokens(st_local("vlist")))
}
end

mata
var = ("a1", "b2",  "a3", "b4",  "a5")
st_addvar(("float"), var)
// st_store(.,("a1","a3","a5"),J(10,3,1))  //
st_store(.,unab("a*"),J(10,3,1))  
end

[charlie wong]

Thanks a lot for the reply, Christophe!