"word # of string" idiom (part of extended string functions)

Question

I'm trying to label variables in a forvalues loop on Stata version 11.2.

However, I can't get the extended string function word # of string idiom to work:

local names `""Growth" "Mature" "All""'

forvalues i = 0/2 {
    local name : word `i' of `names'
    display "`name'"
}

This follows a Statalist solution, but I keep getting invalid syntax errors.

I also tried local names Growth Mature All, but that doesn't work either.

Is there a way to do this algorithmically?

Answer 1

word 0 won't work. Stata starts counting at 1. Change your loop to 1/3 and it will work.

Also, consider tokenize:

. tokenize `""Growth" "Mature" "All""'

. forval i = 1/3 { 
  2.         di "``i''" 
  3. } 
Growth
Mature
All

tokenize splits a string into tokens, meaning words separated by spaces unless quotation marks bind words together. The tokens have names 1, 2, 3. As you go round the loop, i is first 1, so the request is to display the first macro, etc.