Loop results: output to a file

[raphael]

I am running a "do" loop which produces results at each iteration; how can I make RATS write the output (which is a series), at each iteration, to a new line or column in the same output file (if possible, an Excel file) ? For example, if I have a loop such as do i = 1, 24, the output file in the end would have 24 lines or columns. Thanks!

[TomDoan]

I am running a "do" loop which produces results at each iteration; how can I make RATS write the output (which is a series), at each iteration, to a new line or column in the same output file (if possible, an Excel file) ? For example, if I have a loop such as do i = 1, 24, the output file in the end would have 24 lines or columns. Thanks!

You can't write an Excel file one column at a time - you have to form it in a single go. From your description, it sounds as if the simplest way to do it is to copy the data into a VECT[SERIES], then output that at the end of the loop.

Code: Select all

dec vect[series] copydata(24)
do i=1,24
   ...
   set copydata(i) = data generated on i
end do i
copy(format=xls,org=columns) / copydata

[raphael]

Thanks that's great. What if the output is a real number instead of a series?

[TomDoan]

The easiest thing there is probably to do DISPLAY(UNIT=COPY) inside the loop. That will create a text file that you can pull into Excel. This is from the example program betas.prg. It creates a text file betas.lst which has two columns - the ticker symbol on the left and a beta coefficient on the right.

Code: Select all

open copy betas.lst
data(format=rats) / market
do i=1,ntickers
  labels 1
  # tickers(i)
  clear 1
  data(format=rats) / 1
  linreg(noprint) 1
  # constant market
  display(unit=copy) tickers(i) @20 ##.##### %beta(2)
end do i
close copy