This question has been edited to add sample data and clean-up (hopefully) some unnecessary steps per feedback.
I am starting with longitudinal data in wide format. I need to subset, reshape, and perform summary steps for multiple different chunks of data. I want to create macro variables with varlists needed for reshaping and other repetitive steps in wide and long format. The variables being reshaped follow a consistent naming pattern of (prefix)_(name)_#. There are also variables following the same pattern that do not need to be reshaped, and variables that are time-invariant and follow other naming conventions. To generate sample data:
set obs 1
foreach t in 0 6 15 18 21 {
foreach w in score postint postintc constime starttime {
gen p_`w'_`t' = 1
}
}
gen p_miles_0 = 1
gen p_hea_0 = 1
gen cons_age = 1
ds
I want to create two macro vars 1) wide_varlist for wide format data where the variables end in a number and 2) uniquestubs for long format data where the macro list contains just the stubs. I am having trouble using the macro list extended function "uniq" to generate #2 here. Here is my code so far. My full varlists are actually much longer.
Steps to create macro with wide format varlist:
/* create varlist for wide format data a time point 0,6,15,18,21 */
ds p_score_* p_postint_* p_postintc_* p_constime_* p_starttime_*
di "`r(varlist)'"
global wide_varlist `r(varlist)'
Start steps to create macro with long format varlist:
/*copy in wide format varlist*/
global stubs "$wide_varlist"
/*remove # - this results in a macro with 5 dups of same stub*/
foreach mo of numlist 0,6,15,18,21{
global stubs : subinstr global stubs "`mo'" "", all
}
/*keep unique stubs*/
global uniquestubs : list uniq stubs
Everything above works as I intend until global uniquestubs : list uniq stubs, which doesn't create the macro uniquestubs at all.
My situation seems similar to this this question but the same solution didn't work for me.
Any thoughts? Appreciate the help.
It's a bit difficult to follow what you are trying to do (a) without a reproducible example (b) because much of your code is just copying the same varlist to different places, which is a distraction.
We can fix (a) by creating a toy dataset:
clear
set obs 1
foreach t in 0 6 15 18 21 {
foreach w in score postint postintc constime starttime {
gen p_`w'_`t' = 1
}
}
ds
p_score_0 p_score_6 p_score_15 p_score_18 p_score_21
p_postint_0 p_postint_6 p_postint_15 p_postint_18 p_postint_21
p_postintc_0 p_postintc_6 p_postintc~5 p_postintc~8 p_postintc~1
p_constime_0 p_constime_6 p_constim~15 p_constim~18 p_constim~21
p_starttim~0 p_starttim~6 p_startti~15 p_startti~18 p_startti~21
Now the main difficulty seems to be that you want stubs for a reshape long. This code suffices for the toy dataset. There is no need to scan yet more variable names with the same information. If you don't have all variables for all time points, you may need more complicated code.
unab stubs: p_*_0
local stubs : subinstr local stubs "0" "", all
di "`stubs'"
p_score_ p_postint_ p_postintc_ p_constime_ p_starttime_
I don't understand the enthusiasm for globals here, but, programming taste aside, you can put the last result in a global quite easily.