Macros in for loop in Stata

Question

I have local variables x1 , x2, and x3 as follows

local x1 2 3 5
local x2 5 9 7
local x3 1 3 4

Now I define local x as

local x `x1' `x2' `x3' 

Next, I define for loop as

 foreach var of varlist `x'{
    reg y `var'}

The problem is that stata is giving me the error (note y is dependent variable)

invalid name

Any suggestion in this regard will be highly appreciated.

Answer 1

I think of macros as "delayed typing". This is the approach I use.

sysuse auto, clear
local x1 weight
local x2 headroom trunk
local x3 length turn

forvalue i = 1/3 {
    regress price `x`i''
}

Answer 2

Assuming these are variables, Richardh's solution would obviously work. However it requires that you rename all your macros even though that's not necessary.

You can just expanding the macros twice:

local x x1 x2 x3
foreach var of local x {
   reg y ``var''
}

You could also do this, but you'll have problems if your lists of variables are too long:

local x "`x1'" "`x2'" "`x3'" 
foreach var of local x {
  reg y `var'
}