# Stata Basics: foreach and forvalues

There are times we need to do some repetitive tasks in the process of data preparation, analysis or presentation, for instance, computing a set of variables in a same manner, rename or create a series of variables, or repetitively recode values of a number of variables. In this post, I show a few of simple example “loops” using Stata commands -foreach-, -local- and -forvalues- to handle some common simple repetitive tasks.

### -foreach-: loop over items

Consider this sample dataset of monthly average temperature for three years.


* input data
> clear
> input year mtemp1-mtemp12

year     mtemp1     mtemp2     mtemp3     mtemp4     mtemp5     mtemp6     mtemp7     mtemp8     mtemp9    mtemp10    mtemp11    mtemp12
1. 2013 4 3 5 14 18 23 25 22 19 15 7 6
2. 2014 -1 3 5 13 19 23 24 23 21 15 7 5
3. 2015 2 -1 7 14 21 24 25 24 21 14 11 10
4. end



Now the mean temperatures of each month are in Centigrade, if we want to convert them to Fahrenheit, we could do the computation for the 12 variables.

generate fmtemp1 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp2 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp3 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp4 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp5 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp6 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp7 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp8 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp9 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp10 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp11 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32
generate fmtemp12 = mtemp1*(9/5)+32



However this takes a lot of typing. Alternatively, we can use the -foreach- command to achieve the same goal. In the following codes, we tell Stata to do the same thing (the computation: c*9/5+32) for each of the variable in the varlist – mtemp1 to mtemp12.

> foreach v of varlist mtemp1-mtemp12 {
generate fv' = v'*(9/5)+32
}

* list variables
> ds
year      mtemp3    mtemp6    mtemp9    mtemp12   fmtemp3   fmtemp6   fmtemp9   fmtemp12
mtemp1    mtemp4    mtemp7    mtemp10   fmtemp1   fmtemp4   fmtemp7   fmtemp10
mtemp2    mtemp5    mtemp8    mtemp11   fmtemp2   fmtemp5   fmtemp8   fmtemp11



Note that braces must be specified with -foreach-. The open brace has to be on the same line as the foreach, and the close brace must be on a line by itself. It’s crucial to close loops properly, especially if you have one or more loops nested in another loop.

### -local-: define macro

This was a rather simple repetitive task which can be handled solely by the foreach command. Here we introduce another command -local-, which is utilized a lot with commands like foreach to deal with repetitive tasks that are more complex. The -local- command is a way of defining macro in Stata. A Stata macro can contain multiple elements; it has a name and contents. Consider the following two examples:


* define a local macro called month
> local month jan feb mar apr

> display "month'"'
jan feb mar apr



Define a local macro called mcode and another called month, alter the contents of mcode in the foreach loop, then display them in a form of “mcode: month”.

> local mcode 0
> local month jan feb mar apr
> foreach m of local month {
local mcode = mcode' + 1
display "mcode': m'"
}
1: jan
2: feb
3: mar
4: apr



Note when you call a defined macro, it has to be wrapped in “” (left tick) and “‘” (apostrophe) symbols.

### Rename multiple variables

Take the temperature dataset we created as an example. Let’s say we want to rename variables mtemp1-mtemp12 as mtempjan-mtenpdec. We can do so by just tweaking a bit of the codes in the previous example.

Define local macro mcode and month, then rename the 12 vars in the foreach loop.

> local mcode 0
> local month jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec
> foreach m of local month {
local mcode = mcode' + 1
rename mtempmcode' mtempm'
}
> ds
year      mtempmar  mtempjun  mtempsep  mtempdec  fmtemp3   fmtemp6   fmtemp9   fmtemp12
mtempjan  mtempapr  mtempjul  mtempoct  fmtemp1   fmtemp4   fmtemp7   fmtemp10
mtempfeb  mtempmay  mtempaug  mtempnov  fmtemp2   fmtemp5   fmtemp8   fmtemp11



We can obtain the same results in a slightly different way. This time we use another 12 variables fmtemp1-fmtemp12 as examples. Again, we will rename them as fmtempjan-fmtempdec.

Define local macro month, then define local macro monthII in the foreach loop with specifying the string function word to reference the contents of the local macro month.


> local month jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec
> foreach n of numlist 1/12 {
local monthII: word n' of month'
display "monthII'"
rename fmtempn' fmtempmonthII'
}
jan
feb
mar
apr
may
jun
jul
aug
sep
oct
nov
dec

> ds
year       mtempmar   mtempjun   mtempsep   mtempdec   fmtempmar  fmtempjun  fmtempsep  fmtempdec
mtempjan   mtempapr   mtempjul   mtempoct   fmtempjan  fmtempapr  fmtempjul  fmtempoct
mtempfeb   mtempmay   mtempaug   mtempnov   fmtempfeb  fmtempmay  fmtempaug  fmtempnov



I usually run -display- to see how the macro looks like before actually applying the defined macro on tasks like changing variable names, just to make sure I don’t accidentally change them to some undesired results or even cause errors; however the display line is not necessary in this case.

Here we rename them back to fmtemp1-fmtemp12.

> local mcode 0
> foreach n in jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec {
local mcode = mcode' + 1
rename fmtempn' fmtempmcode'
}

> ds
year      mtempmar  mtempjun  mtempsep  mtempdec  fmtemp3   fmtemp6   fmtemp9   fmtemp12
mtempjan  mtempapr  mtempjul  mtempoct  fmtemp1   fmtemp4   fmtemp7   fmtemp10
mtempfeb  mtempmay  mtempaug  mtempnov  fmtemp2   fmtemp5   fmtemp8   fmtemp11



### -forvalues-: loop over consecutive values

The -forvalues- command is another command that gets to be used a lot in handling repetitive works. Consider the same temperature dataset we created, suppose we would like to generate twelve dummy variables (warm1-warm12) to reflect if each of the monthly average temperature is higher than the one in the previous year. For example, I will code warm1 for the year of 2014 as 1 if the value of fmtemp1 for 2014 is higher than the value for 2013. I will code all the warm variables as 99 for the year of 2013, since they don’t have references to compare in this case.

We can do this by running the following codes, then repeat them for twelve times to create the twelve variables warm1-warm12.


* _n creates sequences of numbers. Type "help _n" for descriptions and examples.
> generate warm1=1 if fmtemp1 > fmtemp1[_n-1]
(2 missing values generated)

> replace warm1=0 if fmtemp1 <= fmtemp1[_n-1]

> replace warm1=99 if year==2013

> list year fmtemp1 warm1, clean

year   fmtemp1   warm1
1.   2013      39.2      99
2.   2014      30.2       0
3.   2015      35.6       1



However this takes a lot of typing and may even create unwanted mistakes in the process of typing or copy-paste them over and over.


* drop warm1 we generated
> drop warm1



Instead, we can use -forvalues- to do so:

> forvalues i=1/12 {
generate warmi'=1 if fmtempi' > fmtempi'[_n-1]
replace warmi'=0 if fmtempi' <= fmtempi'[_n-1]
replace warmi'=99 if year==2013
}

* see the results
> list year fmtemp1-fmtemp3 warm1-warm3, clean

year   fmtemp1   fmtemp2   fmtemp3   warm1   warm2   warm3
1.   2013      39.2      37.4        41      99      99      99
2.   2014      30.2      37.4        41       0       0       0
3.   2015      35.6      30.2      44.6       1       0       1



Reference
Baum, C. (2005). A little bit of Stata programming goes a long way… Working Papers in Economics, 69.

Yun Tai
CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Virginia Library