I've had a tough time getting a simple loop to work in SPSS that isn't based on variables.
In a nutshell, I want to write
!sequentialVars varStr=/Var/ i=/20/.
or similar and get: Var1 Var2 Var3 Var4 Var5 ... Var19 Var20 to put into a cTable or anywhere else that takes a string of variable names.
In pseudo VB it would be:
varString = "AnyVarName"
for i=1 to 20
newVarList = concatenate(newVarList," ",varString, i)
next i
I can't even echo back the i in an SPSS loop, let alone concatenate it.
Thank you!
The example below demonstrates making a list of variables within a macro. What it does is loop through 1 to n, and concatenates the number on the end of the current variable (base_i). Then the X1 + X2 .... is made by just adding on for every variable through the loop. The macro takes the arguments base variable and the number of items.
*making filler data frame.
data list free / V1 (F1.0).
begin data
1
3
5
end data.
dataset name input.
*making a vector list.
vector X(5,F1.0).
do repeat X = X1 to X5.
compute X = RV.BERNOULLI(0.5).
end repeat.
*what I want to do essentially.
ctables
/table X1 + X2.
*now to demonstrate looping through list.
DEFINE !loop_ctable (base = !TOKENS(1)
/n = !TOKENS(1))
!DO !I = 1 !TO !n
!IF (!I = 1) !then
!LET !base_stub = !concat(!base,"1")
!ELSE
!LET !base_i = !CONCAT(!base,!I)
!LET !base_stub = !concat(!base_stub," + ",!base_i)
!IFEND
!DOEND
ctables
/table !base_stub.
!ENDDEFINE.
set mprint on.
!loop_ctable base = X n = 5.
I can think of a way to loop through letters (at least through the initial letters of the alphabet), although hopefully this suffices.